Use this checklist to keep heat inside your home and prevent wasting money on heating bills throughout the winter months.
Insulate your home properly!
• Block all spaces and areas where heat can escape.
• Seal door bottoms.
• Put plastic over windows and sills or tape around older window frames to keep heat inside.
• Cover windows with thick curtains or drapes.
• Wall-to-wall carpeting and large rugs will keep floors warmer than hard floor coverings like wood or tile.
• Your attic is often overlooked but it’s important to ensure that all gaps are covered or sealed.
All these home insulation steps will help prevent your heating system from working harder to heat rooms and provide warmer spaces and surfaces throughout your home all winter.
How can an energy expert help you prevent heat loss in your home?
To insulate your home optimally, having a professional energy audit is the smartest thing to do. During a home energy audit, the expert may suggest or point out the following to help keep heat in your home all winter:
• Checking your thermostat to make sure that it is sending the correct signal to your boiler or furnace, and functioning optimally.
• Upgrade your current boiler or furnace. An older system may not be running at peak efficiency. A new boiler or furnace will run efficiently to keep your home warm and save more on heating costs.
• Fireplaces and chimney can cause a large amount of heat loss in your home, when not in use. An energy audit expert may suggest installing fireplace plugs and making sure that fireplace caps are fitted to the chimney top, to prevent heat loss. And, make sure to get your chimney inspected and cleaned annually.
• Ensuring that dampers (items that control airflow through your home heating system’s ductwork) are functioning well so that better airflow from the heating source is increasing and maintaining temperatures throughout the home. Less airflow lowers temperatures.
• Making sure that filters in your home’s ductwork and heating system are not clogged. This can prevent the system from ventilating heat properly. The energy audit expert may suggest replacing filters and having them properly installed by a trained technician to help prevent cooler temps in your home and save on energy costs.
Need any more help? Contact us today for more information on how to keep your home warmer and learn more about a home energy audit.