Tips To Manage Home Heating Load

If you're heard the phrase “heating load” but you're not sure what it means, it's simply the amount of energy consumed by your heat pump or furnace to maintain a comfortable temperature inside your home. If you'd like to save energy and reduce your utility bills, you can use these tips to better manage your home heating load:

Seal Air Leakage Sources

Heated air losses make your heating system work harder and waste energy. To curb these losses, use weatherstripping, expandable foam and caulk to seal gaps and leaks around your exterior doors, windows, and where wiring, pipes and vents penetrate the exterior shell. Seal spots where air leakage occurs between the attic and your finished living areas and the access hatch too, and have your accessible HVAC ducting runs sealed and insulated as well.

Maintain Your Heating Equipment

Well-maintained equipment consumes less energy, so get yours professionally serviced every year. To keep your equipment running efficiently throughout the heating season, check the system's air filter once a month, and put in a fresh one when you see any dirt accumulation.

Install Sufficient Attic Insulation

According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), you should have a total of R-30 to R-49 installed between your attic floor joists to limit energy losses that add to your heating load. When you're insulating the attic, don't forget to do the access hatch too.

Keep Heating Vents Open and Unobstructed

When some vents are closed or blocked, it puts extra strain on your heating equipment and increases its energy consumption. You can avoid this by keeping your vent louvers open and checking periodically that they're unobstructed by household items like furniture, rugs or long window treatments.

Switch to a Programmable Thermostat

If you still have an older manual or digital thermostat, install a programmable model that allows you to automate energy-saving temperature setbacks. Ideally, these should be daily eight-hour periods, such as when everyone's away all day, or at night when your family is sleeping.

For personalized advice about managing your home heating load, contact the Broken Arrow HVAC pros at Air Assurance.

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 heating loads and other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273. Credit/Copyright Attribution: “geralt/Pixabay”

How to Reduce the Load on Your Furnace

You've probably heard the terms "heating load" or "cooling load" in reference to the furnace and air conditioner. Sometimes experts advise reducing these loads on the HVAC system to save money on utility bills. Heating and cooling loads will also affect the size of the furnace or air conditioner you need. Here's a brief explanation of these terms and how understanding them can help you save.

Defining Heating (and Cooling) Loads

Load refers to how much heat has to be added or removed in a space to achieve a desired temperature range. When you're planning to upgrade your heating system, your HVAC consultant will refer to your home's heating load, or how much capacity a furnace must have to heat the home to the desired temperature. Reducing the load means finding ways to make the home more efficient so a system with a lower capacity can be installed. It also means preventing heated air from escaping the home — and cold air from infiltrating — so that the furnace works efficiently to achieve the temperature set points.

Heating and cooling loads are determined by software calculations, based on input from data collected on the home, including square footage, how many and what size windows, the home's orientation, insulation and many other factors. The software calculates the home's heating or cooling load so that the consultant can determine what size HVAC system is needed. The more efficient the home, the smaller the heating or cooling load, and the less heating or cooling capacity an HVAC system will need.

Increasing Efficiency

Here are a few things you can do to reduce your heating load this winter and lower your bills:

• Caulk or install weatherstripping around windows and doors to keep out drafts.

• Install a door sweep on exterior doors.

• Install insulation around pipes, cables and wiring that enter through holes in exterior walls.

• Insulate electrical switches in exterior walls.

• Add insulation in attics and walls. Attic insulation should be above joists.

To learn more about reducing the load on your furnace, contact Air Assurance. We've served the Broken Arrow area for 30 years.

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). Credit/Copyright Attribution: “Imagentle/Shutterstock”

What's Your Heat Pump's Balance Point?

What's Your Heat Pump's Balance Point?

Adjusting your thermostat and weatherizing your home are critical to maximize your heat pump's efficiency. A heat pump's balance point is the lowest limit at which the equipment can provide heating comfortably. Precisely determining your heat pump's point can be somewhat of a challenge. With the abundance of technical jargon and the scientific principles that are a part of determining the heat pump's balance point, this can seem like an elusive concept.The two major factors that play roles in determining the balance point are heating load and heating capacity. Heating load defines the difference between what your home's current temperature is and the temperature at which you desire to heat or cool it to. In other words, this term illustrates how much cooling or heating your home requires. In contrast, heating capacity is a metric that defines how much cooling or heating your heat pump can provide.Your heat pump system uses outdoor air as the thermal energy source to cool or heat your home. This means that a heat pump's heating capacity is dependent on outside temperatures. The scientific principles behind this are complex, but what you as a homeowner need to remember is that a heat pump's capacity increases as its heating load decreases and its capacity decreases as its heating load increases. The heat pump's balancing point is the point at which these two are equal, generally this is around 35 degrees Fahrenheit.This is important because if the outside temperature drops below your heat pump's balance point, your home will need a supplemental heating source to ensure that your heating load demands are met. Usually, this is by more expensive electric heat strips or a gas or propane furnace. Backup heat is often controlled by a two stage thermostat that switches on when the heat pump has ceased to be effective at heating your home. You can better improve your heat pump's effectiveness and lower its balancing point by properly weatherizing your home.To learn more about heat pump's an balancing points, contact your Oklahoma HVAC experts at Air Assurance Heating, Air Conditioning, Plumbing today.Normal0falsefalsefalseEN-USX-NONEX-NONE/* Style Definitions */table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-priority:99;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;mso-para-margin:0in;mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";}

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). 

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