If you are like most people, the winter season has you looking for ways to reduce heating bills while keeping your home comfortable. There are lots of tips and tricks out there, but the key is to understand how your HVAC system maintains the temperature in your home and what it needs to do this efficiently.
You probably know a few ways to reduce your heating bills already, like putting up window insulation and checking for air leaks, but there are a lot of other factors to consider when trying to reduce heating bills. Here is a closer look at how HVAC efficiency works from your heating & air conditioning team at Galmiche & Sons.
HVAC Maintenance for Reduced Heating Bills
The most obvious tip is to winterize your home. This can include putting up storm windows or a window insulation kit as well as checking for air leaks around your doors and other exposed areas of the home. Simply putting in a little time to check for leaks and add insulation can actually reduce your heating bills quite a bit, but it is not the only way to prevent winter from wrecking your finances. Ducts are another major point of failure. You can either check out your duct work yourself, looking for both debris inside as well as air leaks, or you can have your HVAC service team analyze your ducts as part of a general winter maintenance and cleaning.
In fact, the best way to reduce heating bills is simply to schedule regular professional maintenance visits for your HVAC equipment. There are lot of things you can do on your own to reduce heating bills, but nothing beats the in-depth cleaning that comes with professional maintenance visits. Finally, you can turn down the heat. Simply reducing your target temperature by two degrees can reduce your heating bills by 5%, so making sure to turn down the heat when you’re sleeping or out of the house is a great way to save this winter.
Energy Saving HVAC Equipment
That is where new equipment comes in too. While it can be a big investment to replace parts of your HVAC system, doing so can also reduce your heating bills over time. In particular, upgrading to a programmable thermostat can help you reduce your heating bills fairly quickly. Not only does a programmable thermostat allow you to more easily set off times and turn down the heat from afar, many new systems offer temperature zoning too. Temperature zoning gives you the ability to heat (or cool) only the parts of your home that need it, saving you quite a bit on energy.
It might also be worth upgrading your HVAC system itself. If your system is too old to work efficiently, the best way to reduce your heating bills might be to bite the bullet and upgrade to a more modern and energy efficient system. This is one solution people do not often consider, but depending on the age and function of your HVAC system, it is often worth it.
Learn More About How to Reduce Your Heating Bills
In St. Louis and the surrounding areas, your heating & air conditioning service team at Galmiche & Sons can help you assess your current HVAC set up and determine if upgrading to an energy efficient model would be right for you. Give us a call today!
