6 Mistakes to Avoid While Heating Your Home this Winter
When the weather turns cold, you reach for the thermostat, set up your desired temperature, and your house immediately starts to get warm. Nothing simpler, right?
But as the cold winter months progress, your bills get higher and higher, your heating unit is not as efficient as you would like it to be, and maybe your house isn’t quite as toasty either.
The reason is that you might be heating your house the wrong way and you don’t even know it. This is what leads to making your thermostat work overtime and a rise in your heating bills. Here are 6 mistakes to avoid while heating your home this winter.
1. Don’t Turn Up The Thermostat On High To Heat Up Your Cold House Quickly
Yes, as you are greeted by a cold front in your house, it’s extremely tempting simply to turn the thermostat as high as you can, thinking that will heat up your home much faster than normally.
Unfortunately, that’s not how thermostats work at all. No matter how high the thermostat is, your house will still take the same time to heat up. Take your time and allow the house or building to come to the desired temperature on its own.
2. Do Not Keep Your Curtains Closed All Day Long
Sunlight is your best friend, even in wintertime. Even if it seems like there isn’t that much of it in the cold season, that’s not actually true. Allow sunlight and the heat resulting from it to enter your house as much as possible.
Draw back your curtains and keep your windows spotless. Grime and dirt will prevent heat to enter, costing you a lot more in bills. Taking advantage of what nature has to offer will give your furnace a much-needed break during the midday hours.
3. Don’t Use Multiple Space Heaters To Save Money
One of the main misconceptions people have about heating in the wintertime is that they can use multiple space heaters instead of a centralized heating system to save some money. And while that might seem like a good idea, in fact, it’s not. A space heater is a sensible choice only when you’re trying to warm up a small space or when you know you won’t be moving around too much. This is why they are commonly used in offices.
However, when you use several spaces heaters to warm up your entire house, you will soon notice your bills going up. That’s because space heaters run on electricity. And they will be using lots of it to work all day and night. By the time winter is over, if you do a simple calculation, a centralized heating system will have cost you much less.
4. Don’t Leave Your Windows Ajar
Sometimes you want a little breeze of cold air to waft in and cool you off. And other times you simply forget to close a window all the way after you cranked it up a little bit. It might not seem like a big deal but here is what that means for your heating system. Any front of cold air that comes inside the house will make your unit work harder than it should to keep your home warm. This will eventually strain it and up your bills without you realizing it.
Therefore, when the cold season rolls in, make sure all your windows are sealed so that no cold air or draft can come through there. If you have the budget for it, doubled paned glass is a fantastic solution as well.
5. Repair All Drafts
Building on the above, another common mistake is not taking care of drafty places in your house. This includes window seals that are leaking or door jambs that allow cold air to enter your house unnoticed.
As imagined, having drafts in your house through which small puffs of cold air can enter at all times is quite the opposite of successfully trying to warm up your home during winter. Therefore, your furnace will work all the harder just to keep up the temperature. Search for all the possible leaks around your house and seal them up. If you can, install seals on your doors so that cold air cannot enter through there.
6. Don’t Put Off Regular Maintenance
Skipping on regular maintenance is a certified recipe for trouble. Waiting until your central heating unit breaks down is the worst possible thing you can do. The damages could end up costing you more than you anticipated or than your budget even allows you to pay.
Not to mention that the failure could be critical, forcing you to replace your heating system altogether. But regular maintenance can give you some much-needed peace of that such problems will never happen.
Having a certified HVAC technician inspecting your unit regularly means that he will be able to spot any problems, no matter how small before they turn into major issues. This will save you time, money, and potential unforeseen damages to your heating unit. 24/7 Local HVAC Services welcomes you to its Savings Club Gold Membership that was created precisely for this purpose. If you join, you will be able to enjoy many discounts and services that are available only for members. For example, you will benefit from two free annual maintenance visits, priority in scheduling and service, 20% discount on repairs, and lots more. Please visit our dedicated page to find out more or contact us directly. We will be more than happy to give you all the details! You can also be our Facebook fan today!
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