Cold and dark days are getting nearer and at this time of year, one of the biggest concerns is how to best heat up your home and stay within budget, if possible. Many households rely on furnaces as their primary heat source and ever since they were introduced for a commercial use, there have always been mysteries and myths people resorted to in order to reduce costs and squeeze out more warmth. The experts at Action AC were kind enough to debunk some of those most common myths.
Abusing the thermostat
Heating systems are designed so that they always take the same time to reach the desired temperature. If you turn up the thermostat to the highest in order to quickly heat up a room, you would gain absolutely nothing, you would only spend more energy in the process.
Lowering the temperature while out of the house will not save you money
If you want to keep your home warm at all times during the winter, even when you go out, it is recommended to lower the temperature by a few degrees in order to reduce the bill every month. The logic behind that is quite simple, lower temperature requires less energy and therefore smaller price to pay.
Floors are supposed to be cold
Maybe you never paid attention or just thought it was normal, but cold floors should not be a thing if your furnace is up and running. This might be caused by poor insulation or maybe a leak from windows or doors. Check all these things out and insulate the house properly, this will not only give you proper heating, but you will save both energy and money by keeping the warm air in by giving it no chance to escape.
Sealing off vents
Heat is distributed through vents in some homes and if you close them in order to concentrate heat in only one room, you wouldn’t get any advantage. The system would recognize that air is not flowing to other rooms and would only work harder. It was designed to heat up the whole area.
The bigger the better
Well, this is not the case when it comes to furnaces. If the size is not right, or in other words, if the furnace is too big for your home, it would only overheat and spend much more energy than needed, followed by bigger invoice than you anticipated.
Patching up old furnace is less expensive than getting a new one
Initially this is true, but in the long run, a furnace that has been in service for the last 20 years or more will surely be riddled with malfunction and frequent maintenance. If you put this on paper, you would realize that repairing it constantly is just not worth your time and money because the system has aged and it will never be as reliable as before.
My furnace is rather new, no maintenance is needed yet
Wrong! No matter how new the furnace is, or how good a condition it is in, it is crucial to have a yearly checkup just before winter starts. If you want to prolong its life and extend years of service, the best way to do that is to have it thoroughly examined by an affordable air conditioning and plumbing company and start a new cold season with the least amount of risk.
