11 April 2018
 Categories: , Blog

In the winter, your home heating systems – whether radiators in every room or a central forced air unit – work to keep the interior of your home comfortable. However, since they are in near constant operation, your energy bills can skyrocket each month if you are not careful. Fortunately, there are a few simple things that you can do to help improve the efficiency of your heating systems within your home and keep your utility bills at a reasonable level.

Open and Close the Blinds

Blinds and other window treatments are more than pretty decorations: they can also work well to keep heat within your home by providing another layer of insulation around the windows. However, you should only close the blinds at night, or if there is no sunlight coming through the window: during sunny days, keeping the blinds open can allow the interior of your home to enjoy some of that passive heating, reducing the load that is placed on your heating system. Opening and closing the blinds throughout the day, depending on the exterior amount of sunlight, can help you maximize heating savings that they provide.

Run Ceiling Fans

Though ceiling fans may seem like they are only designed to keep your home cool, they actually ensure proper airflow throughout your home by preventing heat from sitting at the top of your room. Turning the fans on in areas that you spend the most time is a good idea, as it forces hot air down closer to the floor and ensures proper heat distribution. This can help make your home feel comfortable even at a lower temperature, since that temperature will be more evenly spread out, which means that you can bump your thermostat down a few degrees to enjoy some energy savings.

Chimney Balloons

While your fireplace may be a great aesthetic feature on the interior of your home and can even provide some auxiliary heating in pinch, if you don't use your fireplace regularly it can actually contribute to cooling down your home. This is because hot air will passively rise out of your chimney, lowering your interior temperatures. This holds true even if you have the flue closed: while the thin piece of metal covering your chimney will prevent animals and snow from getting into your home, it does little to insulate your house against the chill. Instead, you should have a chimney balloon installed: these are inflatable insulative installations that are wedged into the open space of your chimney, blocking hot air from easily rising up your chimney and out of your home.

Contact an HVAC repair service for more help.