In a dream world, it wouldn’t cost you anything to heat your home. The warm air would just be “there”, and life would go on with couple hundred extra bucks in your pocket every month.
Alas, you can dream all you like, but free heat is probably not in the cards, unless that rich uncle of yours suddenly directs you to have all the bills sent to him. Short of that, it’s wise to look at every possible to reduce your home heating costs, especially when you recall just how cold and generally miserable the past couple of winters have been here in the Greater Philadelphia area.
Here are 5 simple ways to take a noticeable bite of your cold-weather-season utility bills:
- Wear warmer clothing and lower the thermostat a couple of degrees. Sounds kind of primitive, right? But it’s one of the more obvious and very doable ways to save money.
- Install one or more two-directional ceiling fans. Heat rises: no doubt you remember that from earth science class. Well, it rises in your home, too, which means it’s constantly headed toward the ceiling and your upstairs bedrooms, thus requiring greater and greater amounts of warm air to keep you comfortable. With two-way ceiling fans, however, you can push the warm air back down, thus taking a good chunk of pressure off your furnace, and a noticeable reduction in your heating costs.
- Have preventative maintenance performed on your furnace once a year. With an annual cleaning and inspection, your furnace or boiler will run better, last longer, and run more efficiently, too – yet another way to keep more money in your pocket.
- Check around your windows and doors for air leaks. If your windows and doors aren’t thoroughly caulked and weather-stripped, then warm air is escaping while cold air has unrestrained access to your home. Get rid of the leaks, and you’ll get rid of added home heating expense.
If your heating system runs off a single zone and thermostat, perhaps it’s time to consider adding another zone or two, especially if you tend to spend considerably more time in certain areas of your than others. Then you can feel just as comfortable as you like while reducing the temperature in rooms or areas seldom or at least not currently occupied. Plus, for every zone you have, current or future, we recommend a Wi-Fi friendly programmable thermostat, professionally installed by DiBiase Heating & Cooling. That enables you to change temperature settings remotely for the ultimate in flexibility and added energy savings. Contact us today for more information or to schedule service.