Energy Saving Tips for the Fall Season

The fall season is here and your HVAC needs have likely shifted from air conditioning to heating. You probably had your air conditioner serviced, cleaned and maintained by an HVAC professional this past season. It is now time to attend to the heating system of your home as it is going to exert the most during the winters. If left unattended, your home’s heating can run up a huge bill by the end of the winters. You can change that by implementing a few simple tips and tricks. Here are some handy energy saving tips that will help you save costs this fall season.

Adjust Your Thermostat

One of the best energy saving tips is to adjust your thermostat. A mere adjustment of 7 ° – 10° F can save you up to 10% in energy costs. The trick here is to set the thermostat at the coolest setting at which you are comfortable. You can also keep the thermostat at a higher setting when awake and tune it down when you go to bed.

Another routine that can cut down heating costs is to significantly turn down the thermostat while you are away from home. If you have a programmable or smart thermostat, you can program it to turn off when you are away and turn on an hour or so before you return.

Shut Down the Fireplace Flue

It is great to have a classic fireplace at your home. However, a fireplace typically needs a flue damper that draws out the air. In winters when the heating is on, an open flue will draw out warm air from your home and hike up the energy consumption.

You can prevent this by ensuring that the flue is completely closed. If you are unsure, simply light a match and hold it in the fireplace. If the flame draws up, this means the flue is sucking air from the fireplace and that it’s open or there’s a leak. Plugging the leak will prevent warm air from escaping through the fireplace.

Consider Using a Humidifier

A humidifier adds water content to the air inside your home. The added moisture is considered beneficial for health. At the same time, the extra humidity allows your heating system to warm up the indoor air more quickly. This in turn reduces the energy consumption of the heating and brings down energy costs.

Check for Leaks

Leaks let warm air escape from indoors. This is why it is important to seal the duct work of your heating system as well as various structures at your home. Leaks in doors, windows, walls, ceiling and other areas will bring up your average heating costs. You can easily ensure energy savings by looking for these leaks, identifying them and plugging or sealing them before the coldest months of the winter are here.

Make Use of Natural Sunlight

If you live at a place which receives plenty of sunlight through the day, make the most of it. You can open curtains and let the sunlight in through windows. During the day, this can significantly warm up the indoors and let you muster better energy savings.

Get Your Heating System Serviced

When your heating system works at its best, it is most energy-efficient. An important step to ensure this is to schedule service and maintenance of your heating system once every fall season. It makes sense to do this at the very beginning of the season. When performed by a quality contractor, a routine maintenance will identify and repair leaks or other problems, clear up the ducts and ensure that the heating is working perfectly.

Use Warm Water

Warm water is comfortable and is sufficiently convenient when washing hands, doing dishes or taking a bath. You don’t need scalding hot water to perform these tasks. By setting water heating setting to warm instead of very hot, you will save energy and incur lower bills. In fact, you can save about 3% to 5% in water heating costs for energy 10ºF reduction in temperature.

Hiring Greenville Heating and Air Contractors

A routine maintenance and service of your heating system is vital to better energy-efficiency during the fall season. A timely maintenance will save you in terms of energy costs. Following these energy saving tips can help, however, you should hire a quality Greenville HVAC contractor to see best results.

Here at General Air, we have many years of experience in servicing, tuning and repairing heating systems. We take an energy-smart approach to HVAC services. This means that we try to make sure that the appliances and systems we handle are as energy-efficient as possible. This is precisely why we are the go-to Greenville heating and air contractor.

Contact General Air today to schedule an HVAC service or maintenance. Our Greenville technicians will be with you in no time to get the job done.