Six Ways to Save on Your Heating Bills This Winter

Winter may be a few weeks away, but you wouldn’t know that if you stepped outside lately here in Delmarva! Of course, with that early arrival of cold temps there will also be an early arrival of heating bills.

If you want to keep those bills as low as possible, here are six ways to do it:

1. Manage the temperature in your home. Use a programmable thermostat to drop temperatures by 7-10 degrees for eight hours a day (when no one is home, or when people are asleep, for example) and you will save yourself about 10 percent on your bills with no loss in comfort, according to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). You can expect similar savings if you drop the overall temperature in your house by three degrees throughout the day (a good target temperature when people are home is about 68 degrees).
2. Heat only occupied rooms. Close vents and doors in underutilized rooms, or use zone controls or supplemental space heaters to “spend” your heat wisely.
3. Maintain your heating equipment. Your furnace or boiler loses an average of about five percent efficiency each year if it is not properly maintained, so make sure to get your furnace or boiler serviced every year.
4. Weatherize. The air you paid to heat escapes from all parts of your home: through your walls, roof, windows – even through your floors and electrical outlet boxes. Installing proper insulation and weatherizing your Delmarva home are critical steps to preventing overwork by your heating system. Check out this DOE link for some great air sealing tips.
5. Take advantage of solar gain. Leave windows uncovered during the day to soak up free solar heat, then, cover them at night with heavy, insulating curtains to keep that heat in.
6. Consider sensible heating equipment upgrades. Even a well maintained furnace or boiler couldn’t compete with today’s high efficiency heating equipment when it comes to keeping you warm for less money. In fact, you could save as much as 30 percent on your annual fuel costs when swap your older heating system for a new model – enough to offset the cost of a new heating unit in just a few years, especially when you consider incentives and manufacturers rebates.

Keep heating bills under control with quality high efficiency heating equipment installation and expert heating system service from Poore’s Propane and Oil. Contact us today to learn more!