Learn the Truth about how to Save Energy in Your Home
You’ve heard the term “fake news” tossed around for the past several years in the context of current events, but you’ll likely be surprised to find out the HVAC world also has fake news, especially with regard to how to conserve energy in a residential setting.
This is the sort of misinformation that could cost you money with higher energy bills or otherwise preventable heater or AC repairs, while making your home less comfortable at the same time.
These are some of the more common and misleading energy-saving myths.
- Myth: Leaving lights and fans running consumes less energy than simply turning them on when you want light or air movement.
Truth: Go with your gut on this one. With modern technology, there’s no reason any fan, light, appliance or electronic device needs to be turned on when not in use. For example, the power surge from flipping a light switch is negligible, and the same applies to that box fan in your workshop.
- Myth: Just leave the AC or heat at a constant level and you’ll use less energy than if you turn it up and down in an effort to get lower power bills.
For instance, on a hot summer day, set the thermostat at 78 or 80 while you’re at work, then lower the air conditioning to your comfort level when you arrive home. On a cold winter’s day, your home – including your pets and houseplants – will be fine if you lower the heat to the low 60s while you’re away for more than a few hours (or at night while you’re sleeping).
A better way to get this result, with a more seamless and consistent outcome, is to have a programmable thermostat installed in your home. You can input energy-saving programs to adjust the temperatures for when you know you’re going to arrive home.
That way, you won’t have a brief adjustment period when you re-enter the house. The temperature already will have been programmed to return to your preferred setting before you arrive. You can also program the device to raise or lower the temperature for optimum nighttime sleep.
More Energy-Saving Myths Punctured
- Myth: An HVAC air filter’s main function is to sift out unwanted contaminants from interior air, in the pursuit of better indoor air quality.
Truth: While improving air quality is one important task of an efficient furnace or AC filter, another important job is to keep dust and dirt out of system components. Dirty components in a heating or cooling system blower or air handler will make that equipment work harder and longer to do its job, thereby using more energy.
With that increased workload, the machinery is liable to malfunction or fail sooner than otherwise, necessitating an HVAC repair or replacement. You seriously don’t want to pay for an otherwise preventable AC or furnace installation in your Madeira or West Chester home. Whatever the task, your home air filter will do a better job if it’s replaced when it gets dirty.
- Myth: Your energy-efficient heat pump will keep you warm all winter.
Truth: This is partially true, though in cold-winter climates, a typical air-source heat pump will struggle to heat a home comfortable during especially cold temperatures. After all, it performs its job by pulling heat energy from the outside air.
When the outside air is especially cold, heat energy is harder to extract from the outside air. That’s why most heat pumps are equipped with auxiliary or emergency heating units. In most cases, this is an electric-resistance heating element or coil, but sometimes (as in a dual-fuel heat-pump system), it’s an attached natural-gas furnace.
Talk to your trusted HVAC contractor about the benefits you’ll get from a dual-fuel heating system installation.
These systems are especially useful in times of energy instability, when one type of heating fuel or energy source may cost more than another.
- Myth: Close the doors and heating vents to unused rooms during heating and cooling seasons, in order to save energy.
Truth: In most homes with forced-air HVAC systems, it’s OK to close off a bedroom or office if it’s not being used, but avoid closing off larger rooms or multiple rooms. Most whole-house HVAC systems have been designed and installed to satisfy the heating and cooling requirements of the size of your home.
If you effectively make the home smaller by closing off rooms, your heating and cooling systems will be too large for the job. As a result, they’ll short-cycle,
- wasting energy,
- stressing parts and
- not providing balanced heating and cooling.
If you have a whole floor or suite of rooms that has different heating and cooling requirements than other parts of the house, consider installing a zoning system that allows separate temperature control for those areas.
The Truth About Ceiling Fans and More Myths Dispatched
- Myth: Leave your ceiling fans on all day in order to create air circulation in the home.
Truth: In most cases, the purpose of a ceiling fan is to make the people under the fan feel cooler than they would without the fan. Circulating air isn’t the main purpose. Without people in the room to feel that cooling effect, the fan is just wasting energy.
Turn it off when nobody’s in the room, just as you would with lights that have been left on. Don’t forget to turn up the temperature setting on your thermostat a few degrees when ceiling fans are operating in occupied rooms. This will save energy while not impacting comfort.
- Myth: On a warm day, consider leaving the AC off and just opening windows and sliding doors, to enjoy a cooling breeze. Or if you have a broken air conditioner on a hot day, open up all the windows and doors.
Truth: Unless it’s very windy outside, the air temperature has a stronger effect than any breeze that might waft into a house on a hot day. If weather permits, open the windows in the evening to benefit from the cooler nighttime air, but in the morning, as soon as the outside temperature rises above the inside temperature, close all the windows and doors and turn on ceiling fans in occupied rooms.
It’s easy enough to prove this is the correct course. On a hot day, open a sliding door and feel the heat coming into the house. It is better to keep that outside. Keeping the hot air outside also will make it easier on your AC when you do manage to get it working again, which will help prevent an unnecessary air conditioning service.
If your AC is working fine, just turn it on rather than relying on incoming breezes to cool your home.
- Myth: Your attic is a separate climate zone and has no effect on temperatures and energy use in the living spaces in your home.
Truth: In the summer, heat energy and warm air in a hot attic – with the sun beating down on the roof above all day long – can migrate into the rooms below. Warm air can enter through gaps around
- the attic door,
- recessed lighting and
- other pathways, and
- heat energy can transfer through uninsulated flooring.
That’s why the technicians at Jansen Heating & Cooling always recommend proper attic ventilation and insulation.
When in Doubt, Consult Your Trusted HVAC Contractor
Just like with any homeowner challenge, it’s hard to keep track of what’s truth and what’s fiction in the HVAC world. That’s why you should find a respected and trusted heating and AC service contractor in your community, who can set you straight on the best ways to make your home comfortable–in the most efficient and effective ways possible.