Do Fireplaces Efficiently Warm Your Home?

Fireplaces are much beloved for the coziness they bring to a room on a blustery winter night. However, they are also much reviled on several fronts. Fireplaces are inefficient, allowing most of the energy they produce to go up the chimney. Fireplaces can be unsafe, leading to fires in the chimney or from smoldering embers. Wood burning gives off smoke, and with it, unhealthful particles that can compromise your indoor air quality. Wood burning gives off massive amounts of carbon emissions, and is actually banned in some cities.Add to the list of disadvantages the fact you've got to store firewood, which can harbor rodents and termites.So should you buy a house with a fireplace? If you have a fireplace in your home, should you stop using it and replace it with a more efficient type of heating?Our best answer: It depends on how much any of the above disadvantages bother you. Read on for further considerations on fireplace warmth.

Fireplaces as Backup, and Other Options

One of the best reasons to have a fireplace is it can be a backup source of heating in an all-electric house when the power goes out and your furnace won't come on. The fireplace will keep you from freezing, albeit inefficiently.Why else have a wood-burning fireplace? They're great for roasting marshmallows.Seriously, you may want to look into using that fireplace space for a catalytic wood stove. These stoves trap smoke and other combustion byproducts. A chemical coating on the catalyst interacts with smoke and ignites it at a lower temperature than the 1100-degree F temperature normally required, thus making it burn more efficiently. These wood stoves also release fewer carbon emissions and burn wood slower than non-catalytic models. The downside is they are more expensive than non-catalytic types, and the catalysts generally break down after 10 years or so.You might also look into a pellet stove. These are more efficient than a traditional wood stove or fireplace.

For more on fireplace warmth, and whether it's worth the trouble, contact Air Assurance of Broken Arrow.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273.

Lower Energy Bills: A Gift to Yourself This Season

During the holiday season, and wintertime in general, residential heating bills and other energy expenses can go through the roof (sometimes literally). That's why it's crucial to be aware of the energy-saving strategies available to homeowners.Follow these suggestions to enjoy lower energy bills in your Broken Arrow-area home:

• Seal air leaks in your home's outer walls. A substantial amount of warm air can be lost through holes and cracks in the walls, forcing your heating system to work overtime to compensate. Similarly, missing or inadequate insulation can make a warmed-up home lose its heat quickly.

• Consider arranging an energy audit to ascertain where air and heat energy are escaping your home. Once you have that information, you can seal air leaks with caulking or weatherstripping, and upgrade insulation where necessary.

• Adjust ceiling fans so their blades are rotating clockwise (the opposite of summertime rotation). This pushes air upward instead of downward, and redistributes warm air that floats around near the ceiling. Forced down into the part of the room where people hang out, it raises the temperature, relieving some of the workload on the furnace.

• Make sure to program energy-saving setbacks into your programmable thermostat. Get one if you don't yet have one of these essential devices. You can program your heating system to a much lower temperature during the day when nobody's home, and a night when everybody's sleeping. This can be a real energy-saver.

• Remember to open drapes, curtains and other window coverings during sunny winter days. Even when it's cold outside, sun shining through windows will heat up a room by several degrees. Make sure you close the curtains before the sun goes down, though, since they'll add a layer of protection against the cold.

• Schedule seasonal maintenance on your heating system if you haven't already. This improves efficiency, ensures safety, and enables the technician to find small problems before they become big problems.

For more advice on how to enjoy lower energy bills this holiday season and winter, please contact us at Air Assurance. We provide superior HVAC services in the Broken Arrow area.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about lowering bills and other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273. Credit/Copyright Attribution: “Pexels/Pixabay”

Getting Rid of Energy Vampires in Your Home

Reducing energy usage in your Broken Arrow home helps keep your utility bills down. Many homeowners know about shutting lights off when they’re not in use in order to save energy, but what about other energy sources that aren’t as obvious? Watch out for these energy vampires in your home, and work on getting rid of them.

Phone Chargers

Your cell phone charger doesn’t use up much electricity while you’re charging your phone, but it can end up using a significant amount if you leave it plugged in all the time or if you have multiple chargers plugged in all the time. These chargers keep using up energy while they’re plugged in, even if there’s no device attached to them. Make it a habit to unplug your charger when it’s done charging.

Cable Boxes

Cable boxes become energy vampires when they’re left on all the time. While it might seem inconvenient, turning off your cable box when you’re done watching TV can help you save energy. You should also consider plugging this device into a power strip along with your TV, video game consoles and other electronic devices. Doing so makes it easy for you ensure that all of these are shut off when they’re not being used. All you have to do is flip the switch on the power strip on and off.

Computers and Computer Equipment

Computers, laptops and related devices, such as printers and routers, use energy when they are on. Turning these off when you’re not using them can reduce energy usage by a considerable amount. As with TV equipment, consider plugging computers and computer equipment into a power strip.

Older Appliances and Devices

Older appliances and devices in your home use more energy than newer ones that are designed to be energy-efficient. Replacing these with Energy Star appliances and devices helps you reduce the amount of energy you use in your home.

If you need more information on reducing energy usage in your home, please contact Air Assurance. We offer HVAC services in the Broken Arrow area.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about energy savings and other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273. Credit/Copyright Attribution: “mattysimpson/Pixabay”