Saving Money on Your Heating and Cooling Bills

Here are a few ways to save money on your heating bills. One thing you can do is turn your thermostats back a few degrees. If your cold, put on a sweater or cover up with a blanket. If you heating system uses a central thermostat, set it low to keep the chill off in the house. Use electric space heaters to zone heat your home. This way you only heat the room(s) you are occupying. I keep my main thermostat set to 62 degrees all winter unless its a really cold day or night. If you have system that uses hot water for heat, close off some of the radiators in the rooms you don't use very often, but leave them cracked just a little to allow a little heat in and to help prevent buildup in the pipes. Most radiators have a valve on them. By closing off the radiators, it prevents all the cold water from returning to the boiler reducing the amount of time the oil burner motor runs cotting the oil usage. This can work with a forced air system also. Closing off air vents will allow more heat to get to the rooms you are in. One word of advice though, never close off any radiators or air vents in the room with the thermostat because the thermostat won't know when to turn the system off causing it to run excessively. Have your heating system cleaned reguarly, including any air filters in them. If you have a hot water system, have it flushed once a year to remove any buildup of dirt or residue. The less dirt in the system, the better and more efficient your system will be to operate.

Some of these things will help save you money when you cool your home also. Clean the air filters on your air conditioners at least once a month, more often in dirty areas. Clean air filters will allow the air to flow through them more efficently reducing the amount of time the system runs. If your air conditioner has it, run your air condidioners with the energy saver mode set. This mode allows the air conditioner to shut off completely between cooling cycles. If you are purchasing a new air conditioner, get one with this feature on it. One other thing you should do when purchasing a new air conditioner, make sure you get one that is powerful enough to cool the area. Make sure you take the square footage of the area and make sure to account for if its a naturally warm area like a kitchen or a room that gets the sun all day. These things are needed to get the proper size air conditioner for the room or area to be cooled. If the air conditioner is too small, it will try to run to hard and too long to cool the area. Sometimes an air conditioner that is too small can be over powered by the heat entering the room and the room will get warm anyhow. If you have 2 rooms with the same square footage, but one faces the sun, the one facing the sun will require a stronger air conditioner than the one in the shade. Some air conditioners even have an automatic fan control on them. This control allows the air conditioner to adjust the fan speed automatically between low, medium, and high. If the air in the room warms faster than the air conditioner can cool it, the fan on the air conditioner will speed up to compensate for the increase in temperature, then slow back down once the room cools off. This still doesn't compensate for having the right size air conditioner for the room though.

This works for heating and cooling. Help your systems by using fans to help push the air around. If you use a ceiling fan, reverse it in the winter to push the heat down to the floor. Using fans may allow you to turn the thermostats down. I hope these tips help.