.jpg){kind=avatar}
HVAC Tips and Tricks For Energy Savings
Operating the heating and cooling systems at home is expensive. More often than not, we’re stuck with sky-high energy bills, especially during the summer and winter months, when we use our HVAC systems more frequently than we do in the fall and spring.
Most of us may have accepted that our heating and cooling costs will always consume a significant portion of our energy bills. That, however, doesn’t mean that we’re no longer interested in trying to find ways of reducing the cost of keeping everyone cool in the summer and warm in the winter. As much as possible, let’s all apply the following HVAC tips and tricks if we want our energy bills to go down:
Tune your HVAC systems up
One of the worst things that could happen is your HVAC system breaking down in the middle of summer or winter. An AC tune-up can prevent that from happening. Your furnace could use some maintenance work, too. An HVAC system tune-up primarily involves cleaning everything and checking if everything functions optimally. Should they find anything wrong, they can readily fix it.
When your HVAC technician completes the tune-up, your HVAC system will be as good as new and supremely ready for the summer or winter grind.
Ready to find your dream home in Denver?
Let us help you. Call or Text Kenna Real Estate Group at 303-955-4220 to get personalized assistance from our expert real estate agents.
Don’t heat or cool the neighborhood
If you live in an older home, there’s a much higher chance that it has gaps, holes, or cracks in certain places. Leaving them alone would mean you are allowing all that heated and cooled air—which you’re spending a lot of money for, by the way—to escape and keep the neighborhood warm and cool at your expense.
So plug all those leaks to save money on your energy bill.
Use a programmable thermostat
The beauty of having a programmable thermostat is that you can set it to use less energy when keeping your home cool or warm when no one’s home. You can make your HVAC system follow the schedule of everyone in the household with a programmable thermostat so it won’t run full-on when people are at work or school. That alone can translate to substantial energy savings in the long run.
Set up an HVAC zoning system
An HVAC zoning system is mainly designed to customize heating and cooling in specific areas of your home. Using multiple thermostats, a control panel, and dampers, it can regulate airflow in your air ducts, allowing you to control the flow of heated or cooled air into specific zones in areas in your home.
One clear impact of HVAC zoning on your energy efficiency is that it prevents your HVAC system from heating or cooling your basement and other seldom-used areas of your house. You can automatically stop airflow into a room no one uses, eventually translating to significant savings on your energy bill.
Ready to find your dream home in Denver?
Let us help you. Call or Text Kenna Real Estate Group at 303-955-4220 to get personalized assistance from our expert real estate agents.
Don’t forget the sun
During the winter, the sun will still shine and give off warmth. So let the sunshine in by opening your curtains or drapes so you can keep warm even when your furnace isn’t running full blast. Conversely, the sun’s rays getting into your home will surely heat things more in the summertime, making your air conditioning unit work harder—and therefore use more energy—to keep everyone comfortably cool. Close your curtains and drapes this time to keep the sun out.
Dress less in the summer and bundle up in the winter
Instead of pushing your thermostat to the limit in the summer and winter, why not dress appropriately for the season and turn your thermostat settings a bit lower so it won’t use much energy even when you’re home?
In the summer, make it a habit to wear shorts, tank tops, or clothes that should help you keep cool when you’re home. The winter will call for warm clothing, so get those sweaters, coats, sweatpants, and bonnets ready.
Ready to find your dream home in Denver?
Let us help you. Call or Text Kenna Real Estate Group at 303-955-4220 to get personalized assistance from our expert real estate agents.
Clean or replace the air filter
Your HVAC system’s air filter may be clean after that tune-up you had for it before the arrival of summer or winter, but it may already be dirty a month or two into those seasons.
A filthy air filter will severely affect airflow, which, in turn, will make your HVAC system work harder to do its job. So check your airflow at least a month after the tune-up. Leave it be if it’s clean, but recheck it a few weeks later. If a lot of dust has already gathered, clean or replace the air filter right away.
As far as HVAC tips go, the ones mentioned above are just the tip of the iceberg, but they should be enough to get you started on your quest.