5 Simple Ways to Lower Your Heating Bills

Heating your home can take a big bite out of your budget in the winter. Fortunately, there are some simple ways to keep your home comfortable while keeping your energy costs low. Here are several tips for heating up your home and lowering your heating bill.

Turn Down the Thermostat
Lowering the temperature by seven to 10 degrees for eight hours per day can lower your heating costs as much as 10%. Set your thermostat to 68 degrees during the day, and lower when you are away from home. Installing a programmable thermostat will make this simple and easy.

Use Ceiling Fans
Most people think of cooling off when they think of ceiling fans—but your ceiling fan can also help keep your house warm. Set your ceiling fan to rotate clockwise. This will push warm air down and draw cool air upward, boosting the temperature of the room.

Repair Air Leaks
Hidden air leaks will let cold air into your home and let warm air out. Check around your windows and doors. Use weather-stripping or caulk to seal any air leaks you find. Warm air can also escape through your chimney. Make sure to close the flue on your fireplace when you're not using it.

Replace Your Air Filters
Dirty, clogged filters disrupt airflow, forcing your furnace to work harder and consume more energy. Always change your furnace's air filters regularly. Keeping your filters clean will improve the performance of your furnace, and will also give your indoor air quality a nice boost.

Schedule Heating Service
A furnace that's well-maintained will perform better. A furnace often uses more energy when it needs repair. Be sure to schedule heating service each year to make sure your furnace keeps working smoothly. No one wants to be left without a working furnace on a cold day.

For more assistance with your HVAC system, contact us today.

How to Tell If Your Furnace Filter Needs Changed

At very least, your furnace filter should be changed at least once a year when you switch from either heat to air conditioning. The filter helps not only keep the air cleaner inside your home, but an air filter can also stop debris from entering your furnace, improving its overall performance and lifespan.

Unfortunately, when to change your furnace filter for optimum performance can vary. For example, smokers or pet owners may need to change it more often. As filters with a lower MERV rating will need to be changed more often, your filter of choice will come with a recommendation on when to change it. Of course, if you aren't using AC or heating, you won't have to change the filter as often.
If you simply aren't sure on whether you need to change your furnace filter, the filters are cheap enough that you could go the better safe than sorry route. However, you can also look at your filter to see. If you check your furnace filter and find the following, it may be time to change it:

•    The filter is gray, black, or yellow in color
•    Visible dust is around the filter housing or your furnace
•    Your home seems to be getting dustier
•    The current filter has been used longer than its manufacturer advised

If your filter is dirty and needs changed, you may also notice that the heating or cooling cycle takes longer than usual. When the filter is dirty, it blocks more air from making it into your home. As such, the cycle will need to run longer to get the same effect. As you can expect, this is running up higher energy bills as well. This means that even if you aren't so concerned with your indoor air quality, not changing your air filter is costing you in other ways as well. Give us a call today!

How to Tell If Your Thermostat is Not Properly Calibrated

Is your home feeling a little off temperature? While this can be a sign of something wrong with your HVAC system, your own thermostat could also be the culprit as well. Over time and with regular use, your thermostat can fall out of calibration and misread the temperature. This means it can begin to read the temperature incorrectly resulting in your home not getting as hot or as cool as you want it.

Testing to see if your thermostat has fallen out of calibration is something a homeowner can easily do themselves. All you need is a thermometer that you can placed right next to the thermostat. If the thermometer and the thermostat don't match up in their reading, then the thermostat has fallen out of calibration. This means that your home can either be too cool or too hot for you, likely burning up energy bills as well as making you feel uncomfortable.

To recalibrate your thermostat, you will want to call an HVAC technician. While it is possible to do it yourself, you will want your thermostat thoroughly inspected. Your HVAC technician will check to make sure the calibration issue is from natural use and not from a problem. They can also make sure the inner workings of the thermostat are cleaned as well, something that doesn't get done too often. In some cases, calibration issues can be a sign that your thermostat is on its way out. In these instances, they can make quick work of installing a new one.

If your old thermostat has fallen out of calibration and needs replaced, we highly recommend replacing it with a programmable model. This makes it easier to control the temperature when you are in the house and when you are out. This will help cut even more off your energy bills. Give us a call today!

Signs That You Should Call an HVAC Contractor

Few things are more frustrating than having to deal with a malfunctioning heater in the dead of winter or a fickle air conditioner during a blazing summer. When worst comes to worst, all you can really do is call the professionals and have them either fix the problem or replace the appliance entirely. However, you can save a lot of stress and money if you catch these issues before they bloom into complete catastrophes. In order to give you the most comfortable home possible, here are some key signs that you should call out an HVAC contractor ASAP.

Your Air Quality Is Low
There are a variety of ways that low air quality can manifest, ranging from increased sickness in the house to a noticeable scent when the air conditioner or heater are turned on. In some cases (and especially if cash is tight), this may seem like a temporary problem and mild inconvenience that will soon pass, but that's not always true. Poor air quality is often a warning sign that things will be getting much worse in the future. The filters could be clogged, which can lead to overheating and damage in the appliances themselves. Mold can grow quickly and spread throughout the home via ventilation, leading to severe health risks.

Your Appliance Is Making Strange Noises
If you hear strange noises coming from your heater or air conditioner while they're running, then those may be indicators of much worse problems. If pieces are loose inside, then they may break entirely. This isn't necessarily a common problem in state-of-the-art models, but it can be a serious issue for older appliances. In the worst-case scenario, this could potentially lead to an electrical or gas hazard that could become a fire.

How a Contractor Can Help
Getting a contractor to your home as soon as possible is one of the best ways to nip these problems in the bud. They can identify what's causing the problem, how serious it is, and determine the best way to go about fixing it. Of course, they can also help you in other ways that people don't often think about. Your air conditioner may be working fine, and the problem may be minor, but it may also be an extremely old model that simply doesn't have the efficiency of modern air conditioners. A contractor can help you decide if an upgrade is worth it and how much you stand to save. If you’re experiencing any of these issues, give us a call today!

Know the Signs That Your Furnace May Need to be Replaced This Fall

With winter nearly upon us, it is important that your furnace is ready to keep you and your family warm in the cold months that are still to come, and if your furnace is old, you may want to consider having it replaced before winter arrives. Yet, if your aging furnace has still been keeping you warm the last couple of winters, how will you know when to replace it? You do not want to have your aging furnace fail on you when you need it most, but you also do not want to replace your furnace prematurely. If you are unsure whether you need a new furnace, here are a few signs indicating that your furnace may need to be replaced.

Your Furnace is Over 15 Years Old
Even if your furnace seems to be working fine, you may want to plan to have it replaced if it is over 15 years old. Most older furnaces were only made to last about 15 years, and once they reach this age they may give out at any point. Additionally, a furnace that is this old may lose efficiency and begin to struggle to heat your home properly. Rather than wait until you start experiencing problems with your furnace, you may want to plan to have your furnace replaced preemptively if it is over 15 years old in order to ensure your comfort this winter.

Your Bills Are Going Up
Another clear sign that your furnace may soon need to be replaced is if your operating costs have been on the rise. If you have noticed a spike in the cost of heating your home, your furnace may be having to work harder than it used to in order to heat your home. It may then make more sense financially to replace your furnace with an energy-efficient model that will cost less to run. You may also want to consider replacing your furnace if it has required costly repairs in recent years. If your furnace is aging, you will have to decide if it makes sense to continue to put money into it or if you would be better off having it replaced.

Your Furnace Constantly Runs
As your furnace ages, it may have to work harder to keep your house warm. If this is the case, you may notice that your furnace has begun to run almost constantly without cycling off. This is a clear sign that your furnace is struggling to heat your home properly, and you should consider having it replaced before it fails on you altogether.

Contact us today to learn more about how you will know when it is time to replace your home's furnace.

How a Thermostat Affects an HVAC System

 Think of the thermostat as the brain of your system. It connects to your furnace and tells it when to kick on and when to kick off. This means that when your thermostat is having issues, it affects the whole system in a big way.

One of the most common issues that a malfunctioning thermostat can manifest is short cycling. This means that the furnace doesn't run the full cycling, it instead just kicks on and then shortly turns off. This can be caused by a furnace too big for your house where it pushes out heat too quickly rather than the standard gradual heating. However, if you don't have a new furnace, then short cycling is likely the thermostat's issue. Depending on the malfunction, this could mean your home isn't being heated efficiently. While this is a problem, you should also keep in mind that short cycling is very hard on a furnace. The more a furnace turns on and off, the quicker parts will wear out and need repair.

Sometimes short cycling is caused by miscalibration. This means that the thermostat thinks it is warmer or cooler inside your home than it actually is. Luckily, if it is a calibration issue, this is a rather quick and painless fix for your technician. If short cycling is caused by an actual malfunction, then unfortunately your thermostat may need to be replaced.

Yet, many homeowners should think of a thermostat replacement as an exciting opportunity. Thermostat technology has progressed so much further than just a tiny dial on the wall. If you have gotten into creating an energy efficient home, a thermostat can play a huge part. Consider investing in a smart thermostat that will adjust the temperature for you based on your own unique living habits. Such as turning down the heat while the whole family is out and making sure it is nice and warm when everyone comes back. Give us a call today for more information on upgrading your thermostat!

4 Signs That Show Your Air Conditioner Needs Service

Just like any other appliance in your home, an air conditioner needs to be serviced often. Despite the age and model of your air conditioner, it needs to be serviced and maintained before it gets too late and make you incur more cost in the future. The problem, however, is that most home and office owners don't know when to have a service provider to service your air conditioner. Here are the signs that your air conditioner needs service.

1. Reduced Airflow
A reduction in air that flows from your AC might be a need to raise the alarm. You can gauge this from previous experiences with it and feel whether the airflow has reduced. Chances could be that the filters are blocked or clogged. If this is not the case, the compressors need to be checked or need replacement.

2. Blowing Hot Air Instead of Cold
That sounds ridiculous! Right? You obviously wouldn't want a situation where you need some cold breeze because it's hot and all you get is more heat. So if your AC regularly starts pumping in warm air, you should consult your air conditioner service provider and ask them to service it.

3. Increased Energy Bills
Whenever your air conditioner is faulty, it becomes inefficient, and that translates to increased energy bills. You don't have to wait for further warnings from the air con. You might feel like the room still maintains its level of coolness, but the truth is that the air conditioner is struggling to maintain the temperature. You would require to have it checked and lower your energy bills.

4. Strange Noise and odor
If your air conditioner is operating in good condition, it should be almost quiet with no smell at all. If it makes some noise, it could be because of some mechanical problems and the odor would mean some moisture that has dried up in the filters. Having the conditioner serviced would effectively eliminate all these problems.

To have your conditioner well serviced and maintained, contact us, and we will be glad to assist you.