The arrival of colder weather in Southwest Arizona means turning on your heater to stay warm, especially at night. While a furnace or some other sort of heating system is necessary during our short, mild winter, there are some things you can do to help lower your energy bills and keep your energy usage down. Follow these energy-saving tips this winter to keep your home warm and green:
- Have your furnace or heat pump, as well as any chimneys or space heaters, checked out by a professional to make sure it’s operating properly and efficiently before the heating season arrives. Ideally, you should have this pre-season maintenance done each year so you don’t have any surprises in your system or on your energy bill.
- Check your furnace filter before turning the heat on. It likely will need to be replaced after the long summer. This is an inexpensive investment with a big payoff. A dirty filter will slow the flow of air through your forced-air system, forcing your furnace to work harder and leading to premature breakdowns. Inspect the filter once a month during the heating season and when it looks dirty, change it.
- Make sure the insulation in your home is sufficient and of high quality. For most homeowners, the best time to check insulation is during home renovation projects. Installing high-quality insulation in the right places (especially your attic) will keep the heat inside your home in the winter (and outside your home in the summer), allowing you to run your HVAC system considerably less and saving you money.
Install an Energy Star certified programmable thermostat. That way you can control when your furnace or heat pump comes on and what parts of your home are heated. For example, you can turn down the temperature when you’re at work and program it to come up to your desired temperature shortly before you typically arrive home.
Please contact us at Hansberger Refrigeration & Electric Co. for more expert advice and energy-saving tips you can use in your Yuma area home. We’ve been serving Southwest Arizona since 1952 and are happy to help residents reduce their energy usage and live comfortably.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Yuma, Arizona about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about energy savings and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock
