The heating bill is like some sort of mystery. Whatever you do, even if you recently changed and upgraded the heating system in your home, the bills remain relentlessly high. If you’ve encountered this problem, we have a couple of simple but useful tips. Seemingly insignificant things can hurt your heating performance. Avoid a couple of mistakes you probably don’t even think about but often do, and you’ll see a significant decrease in your bill. There’s no mystery, all the wisdom is in a couple of minor things that can save you money.
Thermostat
The most common mistake people make, in hopes of heating their homes during those cold winter days is increasing the thermostat. When you get home “escaping” the low temperatures you want to warm up as soon as possible, so you don’t hesitate to increase the thermostat to extremely high temperatures. However, there are several problems with this practice. First, it’s irrelevant if you set your thermostat tens of degrees higher: your heating system can only work at max capacity, not faster, better, or stronger than the max. Secondly, if you forget to turn the thermostat back down to a “normal” temperature, your heating is going to be running longer than planned, wasting energy.
Just as it’s not good to turn up the thermostat extremely high, it’s also not good to completely turn off the heating. You were probably tempted into turning it off while you’re at work or on the mountains, to save money. This, however, will result in your home significantly cooling off and when you return, your heater will have to work for a long time to overcome the huge drop in temperature. It is much more practical and cost-effective to set the thermostat to a relatively low temperature so that your heater periodically turns on maintaining at least minimum heat.
Draft
Although many people think that draft is only a myth when it comes to that topic it’s better to stick to the traditional Balkan “fear of draft” and be careful that multiple doors and windows aren’t open at the same time. Other than that, closing curtains and blinds can help your home retain heat when the sun goes down. This is especially true for energy-efficient window treatments, such as thermal curtains. Just don’t forget to reopen the window during the day – that’s necessary to clean out the stagnant air in the rooms.
Some people, in an attempt to control the temperature in a different part of their homes, will try and close up ventilation openings in certain rooms. Unfortunately, this impairs the ability of their heating system to work efficiently. Your system is designed to “naturally circulate”. Plugging vents disturbs the balance and increase air pressure in the air ducts.
Maintenance
Finally, by no means should you neglect routine maintenance. Heaters can accumulate a lot of dust and dirt, especially if you don’t change the air filter regularly. Accumulation of dust and dirt can have a significant negative impact on your heating system and even cause the thermostat to “crack”.
Avoid these seemingly small, insignificant mistakes and you will see for yourself how before your eyes, this eternal mystery of high bills is solved in your favor. Bills will be significantly lower, but not only that. Your heating system will be far safer, more reliable, more efficient, and you will be warmer, smiling, and with more money in your pockets.