You might be surprised to hear how much control you have over the amount you pay in heating bills, as well as how big a furnace or heat pump is required to heat your home. Furnace sizing is directly related to your home's heating load, as is the amount you pay in monthly energy bills. If you lower the heating load, you can get away with a smaller furnace and lower heating bills.Following are some effective ways to reduce the heating load of your home:
Seal air leaks. When warm air is escaping your home via gaps in the outer envelope, the furnace has to work harder to replace that warm air. In the summer, when warm air is infiltrating your home through the same openings, your A/C has to work harder. Using caulk, weatherstripping or spray foam (depending on the location and size of air leak), seal your house so it's as airtight as possible.
Upgrade insulation. Without adequate insulation in walls, foundation, ceilings and attic, heat energy has an easier time transferring to the outside in winter and inside in the summer. As with air leaks, this forces your furnace to work harder, wasting energy and stressing parts. Attic insulation especially is important to keep heat inside.
Get a programmable thermostat. These devices allow you to set energy-saving programs to match your daily schedule. The thermostat will lower heating when nobody's home or when everybody's asleep at night, and return it to your comfort level shortly before home occupants are expected to awaken or return home from work or school.
Use ceiling fans. In the winter, set the fan blade rotation to clockwise. This blows air upward, where it displaces warm air that collects near the ceiling, pushing it down into the room where people can feel it.
Schedule preventive maintenance. Make sure you schedule a maintenance tuneup on your furnace once a year, to ensure it's operating effectively, efficiently and safely.
More more information on how to lower the heating load in your Broken Arrow area home, please call us 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: “OpenClipart-Vectors/Pixabay”