One of the best, low-cost ways to reduce your overall heating costs is to manage your home heating load. Specifically, this is the amount of heat your furnace system has to generate each day in order to maintain a comfortable home atmosphere. Do this, and your heating bills will decrease, raising the overall efficiency of your current system.
Here are some tips to manage your home’s load:
Stop air leaks
A common way that homes tend to lose energy is through air leaks. It is more likely for leaks and cracks to exist in older homes, but newer homes also succumb to leaks over time. When air is allowed to escape through the attic, walls, electrical outlets and foundation, that air carries heat along with it – and you pay for your furnace to generate that heat. With heat losses, the home’s overall heating load increases, requiring your furnace to work increasingly harder to compensate for losses.
Stop heat transfer
When your home’s insulation is less than adequate, it’s more likely that your home can lose heated air through the building’s exterior shell. Insulation is designed to ensure a proper barrier so that heat remains in the home. If insulation allows heat transfer, the furnace will have to produce more heat to overcome the losses than it would if the insulation was up to par.
Stop air loss through ducts
Your home’s ductwork is designed to deliver conditioned air into your home, but if it has leaks, that heated air will escape into spaces in your home that don’t need heat, like an unfinished basement – increasing your home heating load. To ensure the complete delivery of heated air, ducts should be sealed.
To upgrade home heating load, be sure to seal air leaks, upgrade insulation and seal ductwork. Then, sit back and relax, knowing your furnace system is delivering just the right amount of heated air, and your home’s overall efficiency is working for you. For help with these projects, or to increase furnace efficiency, contact Arpi’s Industriestoday!
Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about managing home heating and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
Arpi’s services Calgary, Alberta. Visit our website to see our special offers to get started today!
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