Are You Ready for Winter?
As the weather slowly cools and the days grow shorter, home improvement experts have a common theme in mind when it comes to preparing your home for another Ohio winter. That theme, to no surprise, has to do with your home’s furnace. Franklin County’s frigid cold can be deadly at times, and keeping your home warm and family safe costs a small fortune.
To help our customers, we at Grove City Heating & Air compiled the following list of money-saving tips that won’t break your budget:
Regularly Service Your Furnace
This is the time of year its vital to have your furnace checked by a professional. Regularly servicing your furnace can prevent more costly dilemmas down the road and optimize its life. It’s worth it, too, because it keeps it running smoothly and efficiently for years to come. If your furnace is relatively new, like two years old, experts say you can get by servicing it every two years. Anything older needs checked by a technician every year.
Switch Out Furnace Filters Monthly
An old air filter reduces furnace productivity and increases heating bills. Not only that, but also a dirty filter can lower the life expectancy of your furnace and create health problems. We advise homeowners to replace their filters at least every month during the winter. If you aren’t sure whether yours needs to be changed, hold it up to the light. If you can’t see through it clearly, it’s time for a replacement.
Buy a Programmable Thermostat
Programmable thermostats are amazing money-savers. They can even pay for themselves quickly by saving homeowners up to a couple hundred a year in fuel costs. They automatically adjust your home’s temperature when you aren’t there. It also maintains temperatures, saving fuel.
Shut Furnace Ducts
Leaks and poor conduction of your heating ducts can lose up to one-third of the warm and valuable air they carry. This is known to make utility bills significantly higher in addition to making it harder to keep your home warm. Enhance your ducts’ performance by closing up any exposures in the attic, the crawl space, or an unfinished basement or garage. Concentrate on the areas where ducts, vents, and registers come out on the floors, walls, and ceilings. Use mastic sealant or metal tape, which are more resilient than mere duct tape, to seal the seams and connections.
Find Additional Leaks
Find and seal air leaks that could be leaking more of your home’s valuable warm air. Attic insulation can be pulled back to locate and seal off openings in the drywall for electric fixtures, fans, outlets, and even pipes. Another thing, check your chimneys, flues, wiring, vent stacks and ducts, and seal them on the interior. Use caulk to fill smaller leaks and enlarging foam for larger holes.
Invest in a Door Sweep
A sweep is a versatile piece of rubber or plastic that’s held to the door’s lower edge by a strip of aluminum. A door sweep will also prevent air leaks from entering your house beneath those exterior doors.
Close Fireplace Damper
Warm air rises, and if you have a fireplace damper open, your hard-earned money goes right out with it. If you have a fireplace, try to make it a habit to shut the flue after it has cooled.
Install More Insulation
Think of insulation like a big warm fuzzy blanket covering your warm home amid a landscape of freezing cold. Insulation blocks that warm air from going out in the winter. During the summer, it keeps that costly chilled air inside. Adding insulation where it’s thin, or where there’s a slight draft, even in your attic, can prove to be a wise purchase.
Stop Messing with that Thermostat
Believe it or not, you’ll save a chunk of money simply by setting your thermostat at one temperature during the day, another and night, and otherwise leaving it alone. Put on a warm shirt and some socks if you get chilly, instead of spending money to raise the heat.
Use Weather-Stripping
Did you know you can find leaks in exterior doors with a candle? From your home’s interior, light a candle and move the lit candle around the door’s frame. If there is a draft, the candle will blow towards you. Be sure to turn off fans and any blowing air when you do this for accuracy. You can seal a drafty door by investing in foam or felt weather-stripping inside the door frame.
Caulk and Plug Miscellaneous Air Leaks
Use caulk for small cracks and the foam sealer for more significant gaps in and around your home. Inside the home, employ the candle method mentioned above. Give special consideration for skylights, chimneys, vents, doorframes, and any other penetration of the home such as appliance vents, plumbing fixtures, and electrical fixtures. In your basement, have a look at the wood, where it meets the concrete foundation. Is it leaking warm air?
Cover Your Windows
You’d be surprised at how much insulation you get from curtains, shades, drapes, and blinds. Use them principally at night and when you are away to maintain heat in the home. In a warmer climate, draw window covers in the morning to keep the house cool during the day, saving money on air conditioning.
For more information, or to schedule a visit, call Grove City Heating & Air today at 614-490-7540 or schedule an appointment online now at www.grovecityheatingandair.com/schedule-now/.
