With winter and the holidays here, you’re probably looking for ways to save money, including with lower energy bills. You’re in luck since most households have a huge potential for greater efficiency when it comes to heating and other energy draws. Try some of the following energy-saving tips this holiday season:
- Take advantage of those warming rays of sun coming through your windows on sunny days. Open the curtains, blinds or shutters, and the solar energy will raise the room’s temperature as much as two or three degrees C. Don’t forget to close the curtains after the sun goes down; that will provide an extra layer of insulation at night.
- Program your thermostat for lower energy bills during the heating season. This means programming temperature reductions during the days that the house is empty and at night when the household is sleeping. There’s no good reason to comfortably heat an empty house.
- Your home may be losing a significant amount of heat via air leaks, especially if it’s an older house that’s never been weatherized. An energy audit will detect where air is leaking, or else you can perform a do-it-yourself search for air leaks. Use caulk, weatherstripping or spray foam to seal holes and cracks in your home’s outer perimeter.
- Upgrade insulation in areas where it’s missing or insufficient. In a typical home, attic insulation can provide the most bang for your buck in both winter and summer, since so much heat energy tends to transfer into and out of the attic.
- Change your ceiling fan blade rotation to clockwise from the default summer counter-clockwise rotation. This pushes air upward in a room, which displaces warm air that collects near the ceiling and pushes it down where people can feel it.
- In time for the holidays, switch out your old-style incandescent light-bulbs for LED bulbs.
- If you haven’t done so already, schedule a preventative maintenance inspection on your heating system. This will ensure both energy efficiency and safety.
For more advice on achieving lower energy bills, please contact us at Arpi’s Industries, providing quality service to the Calgary area.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Calgary, Alberta about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about TOPIC and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Guide.
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