![]() With a forced-air system, blocking a supply or return vent can cause a house-wide pressure imbalance that disrupts the heat flow in the whole system.Ĭost: $0 5. This wastes money and leads to cold rooms. This sounds like a no-brainer, but many times a couch, chair, or bed moved during the summer stays there in winter, blocking the flow of heat into the room. Move Furniture Away From Vents, Registers, and Radiators If you can’t reverse the blade rotation or if you think the fan is cooling off the room too much, leave it off.Ĭost: $0 4. However, that’s only if you slide the reversing switch on the side of the motor housing to the winter (clockwise) position. Not all energy experts feel it’s a good idea to use them in the heating season (doubters says they cool the air too much), but the fans do help bring heated air down to earth in rooms with cathedral or high-sloped ceilings. Spinning counterclockwise, they move air around the room. ![]() The Spin on Ceiling FansĬeiling fans are everywhere in warm-weather climates. Closing these doors when you go to bed prevents large volumes of heated air in the living space from escaping after the fire has gone out. And all that cold air has to be heated, a costly prospect.Ĭan’t resist a fire every few nights? Install a set of glass fireplace doors ($400 to $600). Sure it feels warm by the fire, but every Btu that goes up the chimney is replaced by cold air pulled into the house elsewhere. In fact, it is a good idea to reduce the number of times you use your fireplace.Ī roaring fire exhausts over 20,000 cubic feet of heated air per hour to the outside. Make sure your flu is closed when you don’t have a fire going. ![]() It’s Closed-Flue Season, so Minimize Those Romantic FiresĪn open fireplace damper lets the same amount of heated air escape up the chimney as a wide-open 48-inch window lets out. (If you have separate heating and A/C units that use the same thermostat, you may find four leads, two for each unit.)Ģ. Reattach those wires to the new thermostat’s terminals, after inserting mounting screws in the wall, if necessary. Always follow the manufacturer’s instructions, but typically you remove the old thermostat and unscrew the wire leads attached to the terminals on the back. You can generally install a new thermostat yourself. Some units can store up to four temperature settings each day - e.g., morning, day, evening, night. Choose a setting on the low end when you’re sleeping or are away and go with a higher setting at other times (see table bellow) for savings of between 10 and 20 percent of your bill. Although one shouldn’t be used with heat pumps, a programmable thermostat is a real money-saver with air-conditioning as well as with heat. Install a Programmable ThermostatĪ programmable thermostat allows you to preset temperatures for different times of the day because you don’t need to keep your home at 68 degrees around the clock. We’ll take a look first at the obvious stuff and then at more specialized - but still simple - energy-saving techniques. The most complicated will take a weekend afternoon, and many take little time and don’t even require the purchase of materials, only changing a habit or two. They’re easy-to-do and inexpensive techniques. These aren’t big projects like adding attic insulation or replacing your windows-save those for later. In either case, you can make changes now that will give you a warm home and save you money. More likely, however, you’re paying more than you should to heat it. ![]() If you feel a shiver each time you open your utility bill, your house may be too cold. ![]()
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