Reduce Energy Waste this Winter by Trying these Tips

Over the winter, you’ll have many opportunities for lowering energy bills, while not sacrificing comfort. Try some of the following tips for cutting energy use in your home throughout the heating season. (Many of these tips have the bonus of also saving energy during the cooling season.)

• Use the sun to your advantage. During sunny days, open up curtains, shades, drapes and shutters on the sunny side of the house. The solar heating will raise the temperature in a room by several degrees, meaning your furnace or heat pump won’t have to do as much work.

Plus, there’s nothing more relaxing than dozing off in a sunshine-warmed room on a cold winter’s day. (In the summer, do the opposite – close the curtains to the incoming sun.)

• • But don’t forget to close up curtains and other window coverings once the sun goes down. The curtains add a layer of insulation between the cold outside and warm interior of your home.
• Install a programmable thermostat if you haven’t already, and then learn how to use it correctly.
  • Program energy-saving setbacks for periods when you’re away from home for more than a couple of hours (e.g., work or school).
  • Time the thermostat to return your home to a comfortable level shortly before your expected return.
  • In the winter, when many people enjoy a cooler house during sleeping hours, you can program a setback of a few degrees before you go to bed.
  • Programmable thermostats are also helpful when you’re out of town for business or pleasure for several days. You can program lower temps until you expect to arrive home.
• Your home likely loses significant energy through cracks and other gaps in its exterior envelope. In the winter, warm air escapes through these gaps, as does heat energy through poorly-insulated walls (more on that later).
  • Find air leaks by patrolling the interior side of outer walls with a lighted candle or smoke pencil. Watch for places where the flame or smoke flickers or wavers.

Likely spots are where building materials connect (such as the foundation and drywall), windows and doors, and places where utility wires, pipes or conduits penetrate the outside walls. Depending on the type of leak, use caulk, spray foam or weatherstripping to seal it up. Most sealants have detailed instructions for application on the container.

 The effects of a leaky home aren’t just cold drafts in the winter or muggy air in the summer, but also wasted energy and an increased risk of a cooling or heating system breakdown (and the need for an expensive AC or heater repair) as a result of the increased work your HVAC systems must do as a result of air leaks.

Just as a non-weatherized home will lose conditioned air through leaks in its exterior, it also will lose heat energy through non- or poorly insulated walls, roofs and foundations.

Talk to a trusted professional about upgrading the insulation in your home, paying special attention to the attic. That’s where a typical home is likely to lose substantial amounts of energy while it gets the bulk of extreme weather, especially in the summer when the sun beats down on it all day long.

More Energy-Saving Ideas

• Look at the housing on your home’s ceiling fans. There should be a switch that controls the direction the fan blades turn.

The default, warm-weather setting is counterclockwise. However, during the heating season, you can set the fan-blade direction to clockwise. This pushes air upward, where it displaces warm air that rises to the upper parts of a room. That warm air moves into lower parts of the room where people (and the thermostat) can feel it.

The effect of this is that more time will elapse between heating cycles, relieving stress on your household budget and the machinery inside your furnace or heat pump. Just don’t forget to adjust the setting (to counterclockwise) once the outside weather turns warm.

• Install more energy-efficient lighting.
• Experiment with lower thermostat temperatures in the winter and higher ones in the summer. You might realize that you and your family quickly acclimate to a lower temperature during the heating season (and higher temperature during the cooling season).

Even if that ends up not being the case, it’s worth a try in order to potentially save substantial money in heating and cooling bills and ease the workload on your HVAC equipment.

• Close the heating vents in individual rooms that are not being used. However, be aware that closing the heat (or cooling) to too much of your home’s square footage could have a detrimental effect on how your central HVAC system heats/cools the rest of the home.

Consult with your trusted Cincinnati HVAC company about whether this is an advisable strategy in your home.

Don’t forget to schedule preventative maintenance on your furnace or heat pump, preferably before winter arrives. If you forget and it’s already mid-winter, there’s no time like the present.

A well-maintained heating system will operate more efficiently and provide more reliable comfort in your home. See your local HVAC contractor about joining its maintenance club (if it has one, and it that company doesn’t, consider switching contractors to one who does).

A Club Membership from Jansen Heating & Air Conditioning provides your HVAC system with the manufacturer’s recommended maintenance procedures. This is an annual planned inspection and tune-up service on your heating or cooling system, or semi-annual service for each system.

The Club Membership is designed to meet or exceed all manufacturer and extended-warranty requirements. It also adheres to recommended procedures outlined by the federal Department of Energy and our local utility companies.