Furnace Repair in Livingston Parish: Keep Your Energy Bill Low This Winter

It would b enice if your energy bill dropped like the temperature this time of the year, but unfortunately increasing the heat in your home can easily decrease what’s in your wallet. However, there are things you can do that will keep the temperature up and your energy costs down.

Use Your Ceiling Fan to Warm Your Home

It sounds counterintuitive, but ceiling fans can do more than move cool throughout a room. Each fan has a small switch that can reverse the rotation of the fan blades. Changing a fan to a clockwise spin will push warm air down. Putting your fan on a low setting will gently push warm air through a room, meaning your furnace can do less of the heavy lifting.

Adjust Your Thermostat Overnight

The United States Department of Energy estimates that you can reduce your heating bill by10 percent each year by lowering your thermostat by 10 degrees for 8 hours a day. The overnight hours are ideal for this practice. Adding blankets and/or wearing warmer clothes at night can make this a comfortable compromise while offering cost savings.

Only Heat Rooms that You Use

If you have guest or bonus rooms that you don’t use very often, you can close the vents in those areas to redirect heat into the rooms you use most. This reduces the amount of energy needed to heat a large space that isn’t being used and enhances the efficiency of heating areas of your home that need it.

Keep Your Furnace Clean and Maintained

Like anything around your house, your furnace works better when it clean, free from any obstructions, and well-maintained. While we don’t use our heaters very often in south Louisiana, it’s still a good idea to have them checked before the cool weather arrives. Having a clean, up-to-date furnace can drastically reduce energy consumption.

Use a Humidifier to Make the Air Feel Warmer

Dry air during the winter months is common. Moist air not only feels warmer, but holds heat better. Using a humidifier is a great way to enhance the temperature in your home while allowing your heater to take a break.

If your heater hasn’t been keeping up, or you’ve noticed strange sounds, smells, or anything out of the ordinary since you fired it up this winter, the experts at Glaze Heating and Air are here to help.