The signs of a struggling furnace are usually obvious: strange noises, uneven levels of heating in the various rooms in your home, and rising energy bills. If your budget is too tight to replace your furnace right now and you need your current unit to make it through the winter, several strategies are available to keep your heating costs under control and improve your furnace efficiency. The most effective of these revolve around reducing your home heating load.
“Heating load” is a term used by HVAC professionals to describe, in essence, how much heat you need to generate to warm the indoor temperature throughout your house to the desired level. One of the best ways to cut your heating load is to make energy-efficiency improvements in your home. This alone can significantly boost your furnace efficiency.
Here are affordable investments you can make to improve your home’s energy efficiency and reduce your heating load:
- Add insulation. Here in Fresno, and in many places in California, homeowners tend to overlook the importance of insulation because the weather is usually temperate to warm throughout the year. However, making sure all exterior walls, attics, basements and crawlspaces are properly insulated will inhibit heat transfer and reduce your heating load significantly.
- Replace draughty windows and doors. In many cases, furnace efficiency isn’t as big a problem as heat loss through draughty windows and doors. Upgrade to energy-efficient windows and doors and watch your energy bills come down.
- Invest in preventive maintenance. One of the best ways to maintain furnace efficiency is to schedule an annual maintenance checkup. This affordable investment includes a tune-up on your furnace to keep its mechanical parts running strong, which helps prevent costly breakdowns while improving indoor air quality and overall efficiency.
We at Donald P. Dick Air Conditioning are happy to provide you with further information on boosting furnace efficiency through a reduction of your heating load. Contact us todayto learn more, or to schedule a convenient and affordable preventive maintenance checkup for your home heating equipment.
Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about furnaces and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
Donald P Dick Air Conditioning services the greater Fresno area in California. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!