How to Lower Your Heating Bills This Winter
The arrival of autumn in Eastern Idaho brings a welcome change. The intense heat of summer fades, the landscape is painted in beautiful fall colors, and we begin to embrace the cozy feeling of the approaching cooler seasons. However, this transition also brings with it the certainty of a long and cold winter, and for many homeowners, that means the return of one of the largest and most daunting household expenses: the winter heating bill.
For several months of the year, keeping our homes warm and comfortable is a major and necessary expense. The good news is that you have a significant amount of control over the size of that bill. A shockingly high heating bill is not an inevitability. By adopting a series of smart, strategic habits and making targeted improvements to your home and your HVAC system, you can make a real and substantial dent in your winter utility costs, all without having to sacrifice your family’s warmth and comfort.
No-Cost and Low-Cost Habits
The journey to a more energy-efficient home begins with a few simple, no-cost behavioral changes that can have a surprisingly large impact on your energy consumption. One of the most powerful tools at your disposal is your thermostat. The common practice of leaving the thermostat at one single, comfortable temperature 24 hours a day is a major source of wasted energy. You can save up to 10% a year on your heating costs by simply turning your thermostat back 7 to 10 degrees from its normal setting for eight hours a day. The easiest times to do this are overnight while your family is warm under the blankets, and during the day when no one is at home.
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You can also make a habit of harnessing the free, powerful heat of the sun. Our cold Idaho winters are often accompanied by bright, sunny days. On these days, you should make a point to open the curtains and blinds on all of your south-facing windows. This allows the passive solar heat to stream into your home and provide a natural, no-cost source of warmth, reducing the amount of work your furnace has to do. As soon as the sun begins to set, be sure to close all of your curtains and blinds. This simple act adds another layer of insulation over your windows, helping to trap the day’s warmth inside your home.
Another simple but effective trick is to check the rotational direction of your ceiling fans. In the summer, your fans should be running counter-clockwise to push air down and create a cooling breeze. In the winter, you should switch your fans to rotate in the clockwise direction on a low speed. This creates a gentle updraft that pulls the cool air from the floor up and pushes the warm air that has naturally risen and collected near the ceiling back down into the living space. This helps to circulate the warm air more effectively, making the room feel warmer and allowing your furnace to run less often.
Stop Paying to Heat the Outdoors
One of the biggest sources of heat loss and high energy bills in any home is air leakage. All the small, unsealed gaps and cracks in your home’s exterior, or its “envelope,” can collectively act like an open window, allowing your expensive, heated air to constantly escape and cold outdoor air to infiltrate. Heating the air in your home is a waste of money if you cannot keep it there.
Take a weekend to become a draft detective and hunt down these common air leaks. The most obvious culprits are your doors and windows. Check for any drafts by carefully moving your hand around the edges of the frames. You can often find significant leaks around electrical outlets and switches on exterior walls, and around any area where pipes, vents, or wires penetrate a wall to the outside.
Sealing these leaks is one of the most cost-effective DIY projects a homeowner can undertake. You can apply new weatherstripping to the frames of your doors and caulk any gaps around your window frames and trim. For the small but numerous leaks around your outlets and switches, you can install inexpensive foam gaskets behind the cover plates. These simple, low-cost measures can dramatically reduce uncomfortable drafts, improve your home’s comfort, and save you a significant amount of money on your heating bills.
The Unseen Culprit: Your Attic and Insulation
Because warm air naturally rises, the single greatest potential for heat loss in your home is right through your ceiling and into your attic. The attic is the primary thermal buffer between your heated living space and the cold outdoor environment. If that buffer is weak due to inadequate or poorly installed insulation, your furnace will be forced to work constantly to try and replace the heat that is continuously escaping.
It is surprisingly easy for a homeowner to get a general idea of whether their attic is under-insulated. If you can safely look into your attic through the access hatch, take a look at the level of the existing insulation. The wooden beams running along the floor of the attic are your ceiling joists. If you can clearly see the tops of these joists, it is a definitive sign that your home is under-insulated by modern standards. For our cold Idaho Falls climate, the Department of Energy recommends an attic insulation level of R-49 to R-60, which translates to a deep, continuous blanket of insulation that is well above the tops of the joists.
Upgrading your attic insulation is one of the single most effective energy-saving improvements you can make. Adding a thick layer of blown-in fiberglass or cellulose insulation is a project that can often pay for itself in just a few years through the significant savings you will see on both your winter heating and your summer cooling bills.
Make Your HVAC System Work Smarter, Not Harder
Your furnace is the heart of your winter comfort, and ensuring it can operate as efficiently as possible is a key part of controlling your heating costs. A few simple maintenance tasks and a smart upgrade can make a huge difference.
As has been mentioned in other contexts, the most important task is to be diligent about your furnace filter. A clogged air filter will severely restrict airflow, which forces your furnace to work harder and run for longer cycles to heat your home. This not only wastes a great deal of fuel but also puts a major strain on the equipment. You should check your filter every single month during the heating season and replace it as soon as it appears dirty.
You should also ensure that the system can circulate air freely throughout your home. Take a moment to walk through your house and make sure that all of your heating vents and return air grilles are open and are not blocked by furniture, rugs, or other items. The best technological tool for making your system work smarter is an upgrade to a programmable or smart thermostat. These devices are the most effective way to automate the energy-saving practice of temperature setbacks. A smart thermostat can even learn your family’s habits or use your phone’s location to save energy when you are away, ensuring you are never paying to heat an empty house.
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Annual Professional Furnace Maintenance
While all of the preceding tips are powerful and effective, the ultimate strategy for ensuring your furnace is operating at its absolute peak safety and efficiency is to schedule an annual professional tune-up. This preventative maintenance is an investment that can pay for itself many times over in the form of lower energy bills, improved reliability, and the prevention of a costly mid-winter breakdown.
Over the course of a heating season, a furnace’s components can become dirty and fall out of adjustment. A certified technician from Minuteman Services will perform a comprehensive, multi-point tune-up that addresses every aspect of your system’s performance. They will thoroughly clean the burners to ensure a clean and efficient combustion process, which allows your furnace to get the most heat out of the fuel it consumes. They will also clean and inspect the blower motor to ensure proper airflow, test and adjust the gas pressure, and tighten all electrical connections.
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Most importantly, the annual tune-up is a critical safety inspection. The technician will perform a careful examination of your furnace’s heat exchanger to look for any cracks or signs of fatigue that could pose a carbon monoxide risk. They will also test all of the system’s safety sensors and controls to ensure they are functioning correctly. This professional service is the key to a safe, reliable, and efficient winter.
A warm and comfortable home during the long Idaho Falls winter does not have to come with the consequence of a shockingly high energy bill. By taking a proactive and multi-faceted approach, you can significantly reduce your heating costs and improve your home’s comfort. It begins with adopting smart, no-cost habits with your thermostat and window coverings. It continues with sealing the air leaks in your home’s envelope, ensuring your attic is properly insulated, and keeping your furnace running in peak condition with regular filter changes and an essential annual tune-up.
These strategies work together to create a home that is not just warmer, but also smarter and more efficient. If you are ready to take control of your winter energy bills, contact the home comfort and efficiency experts at Minuteman Services. We can provide a professional furnace tune-up to get your system ready for the season, or we can discuss powerful upgrades like a smart thermostat or improved insulation to help you prepare for a more affordable and comfortable winter.