6 Ways to Reduce Heating Costs in Shepherdsville, KY This Winter
During the winter here in Shepherdsville, KY, the temperature drops to freezing or a little bit below. You may worry about how much it’ll cost to run your furnace or other HVAC system. Fortunately, we have six tips for reducing heating costs and saving money during the winter, so read on.
1. Wear a Sweater
This one might seem too obvious, but if you were to set the thermostat a couple of degrees lower than what you find comfortable and wear a sweater, then you would use both less electricity and less fuel. You can also wear heavy socks to keep your feet warm and contribute to your overall comfort level. While enjoying some down time, snuggle under a blanket.
2. Control Air Seepage
When you have air leaking out of your home, you will also sometimes have cold air seeping in. The best way to find out if you have such air transfer is to have one of our professional technicians perform a blower door test. If we detect seepage, then we can help you take steps to correct the situation.
3. Use a Smart Thermostat
In reality, there’s no reason to heat your home to higher-than-necessary temperatures if no one is there. Let’s say that you and your spouse go to work each day, and if you have children, then they’re at school. You can set the heat to somewhere in the range of 62 to 66 degrees Fahrenheit during the hours you’re all away by programming your smart thermostat.
Then, you can program it to turn the heat back on at 68 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit about an hour before someone gets home. If someone has to come home early for whatever reason, then you can manually set your smart thermostat using a smartphone app. By doing this, you can reduce your heating costs and your carbon footprint.
4. Use Ceiling Fans in Reverse
You might be surprised to learn that ceiling fans can help distribute warm air evenly throughout your home. There should be a switch on the fan that you can use to make it turn clockwise, allowing warm air to be pushed away from the ceiling and around the room. Set the fan to turn at a low speed to avoid creating a cool breeze.
5. Schedule HVAC Service
You make sure that you have regular service on your vehicle, so you should do the same thing with your HVAC system. As fall ends and winter sets in, that’s a great time to schedule annual maintenance to make sure that everything is still in good working order. If we come to do your maintenance and find something amiss, then we can repair it right away, possibly without even needing to book a second service call.
It could be something fairly innocuous like a cracked ceramic igniter, or it might be something potentially serious like a blower motor that’s about to break. In any event, one of our professional technicians will be able to give you peace of mind.
6. Replace Your System
If your HVAC system is past its expiration date, then we can help you select a new one. When should you replace your system? Generally, it’s when a repair will cost more than 50% of a new system.
Old systems that are failing often have signs such as sharply rising energy bills. Of course, rising heating costs could have a simple explanation too. That’s why having the advice of one of our professional technicians is crucial in deciding if you actually do need a new system.
We’ve been serving our community since 1947, so you can have great trust in our wealth of experience and keenly developed knowledge of everything about HVAC. We have both full accreditation and an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau. So, when you need HVAC maintenance, give us a call at Birkhead Co. Heating and Air Conditioning to make an appointment.
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