One of the major costs of owning a home comes from your energy bill — specifically, the energy used to heat your home during cooler times of the year. You can spend a lot of money trying to heat your home and still wind up with unpleasant temperature changes that force you to wear a sweater no matter how long the heater’s on.
There are a few possible reasons why your home’s heating does not work as effectively or efficiently as you want it to. Here are three of the most common reasons and how you can upgrade your home to improve your heating…
Get a New Furnace
Upgrading your older, less effective and less efficient furnace is usually the best way to improve the heating in your home. Older furnaces tend to be less effective even if they are in good condition, but over time they also lose their effectiveness.
They might stop generating much heat, or they stop blowing the heated air as effectively. Maybe the whole thing has already started breaking down completely?
A new furnace can not only heat your home better, but also save you money on your energy bill and improve the air quality in your home.
When shopping for a new, high-efficiency furnace you should make sure to look for Energy Star logos if you’d like to know that they are rated for their efficiency. You can learn how to read these labels to know just how efficient and effective the model you’re looking at is.
Install Better Insulation
The other main reason why you might struggle to heat your home without a huge energy bill is due to poor insulation. There are many parts of your home that need to be insulated in order for your HVAC system to properly maintain a comfortable temperature in your home. You can inspect your home, or have it inspected, to see if there are any missing areas or if any of your older insulation has gaps due to age.
The reason why insulation is so important for keeping your home heated is because, without it, your home will leak any heat it produces and let the cooler air and temperatures inside.
Even if you have a good furnace, without good insulation, you’ll still be wasting energy by making your furnace work harder to keep your home heated. You can choose from multiple types and materials of insulation to use that may work better for your type of home and location.
Fixing or Replacing Air Ducts
The final way to upgrade your home’s heating is by fixing or replacing the air ducts within your home. Your ducts are what helps deliver heat from your furnace in the most effective and efficient manner throughout your home.
If your air ducts are old, dirty, leak air, and/or are simply not designed efficiently, you will likely find some parts in your home are never heated very well compared to others. This is because the hot air is not being delivered evenly throughout your home.
One of the cheaper options that is still effective is to test your duct system for leaks and seal any that you find. You can also try cleaning the ducts of any dust or debris so the air flow through them is not compromised, but that won’t have as significant an effect on the heating of your home.
If, after trying both of those options, your home still isn’t evenly heated, you should look into having them completely replaced. Your HVAC system may potentially even need to be re-designed according to the best practices of today.
This is a guest post courtesy of James Memije, the co-owner at AccuServ Heating and Air Conditioning in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
About the Author:
James Memije is the co-owner of AccuServ Heating and Air Conditioning. He has extensive knowledge in hydronics and forced air systems and is a Licensed Gas Fitter with several certifications including heat load calculation and air duct design.