HEATING AND COOLING
Heating and Cooling Tips
Set your thermostat as low as is comfortable in the winter and as high as is comfortable in the summer.
Clean or replace filters on furnaces once a month or as needed.
Clean warm-air registers, baseboard heaters, and radiators as needed; make sure they’re not blocked by furniture, carpeting, or drapes.
Bleed trapped air from hot-water radiators once or twice a season; if in doubt about how to perform
this task, call a professional.
Place heat-resistant radiator reflectors between exterior walls and the radiators.
Turn off kitchen, bath, and other exhaust fans within 20 minutes after you are done cooking or bathing; when replacing exhaust fans, consider installing high efficiency, low-noise models.
During the heating season, keep the draperies and shades on your south-facing windows open during the day to allow the sunlight to enter your home and closed at night to reduce the chill you may feel from cold windows.
During the cooling season, keep the window coverings closed during the day to prevent solar gain.
Duct Tips
Check your ducts for air leaks. First, look for sections that should be joined but have separated and then look for obvious holes.
If you use tape to seal your ducts, avoid cloth-backed, rubber adhesive duct tape, which tends to fail quickly. Researchers recommend other products to seal ducts; mastic, butyl tape, foil tape, or other heat-approved tapes. Look for tape with the Underwriters Laboratories logo.
Remember that insulating ducts in the basement will make the basement colder. If both the ducts and the basement walls are un-insulated, consider insulating both.*
* Note: Water pipes and drains in unconditioned spaces could freeze and burst in the space if the heat ducts are fully insulated, because there would be no heat source to prevent the space from freezing in cold weather. However, using an electric heating tape wrap on the pipes can prevent this.
Heat Pump Tips
Do not set back the heat pump’s thermostat manually if it causes the electric resistance heating to come on. This type of heating, which is often used as a backup to the heat pump, is more expensive.
Clean or change filters once a month or as needed, and maintain the system according to manufacturer’s instructions.
Fireplace Tips
If you never use your fireplace plug and seal the chimney flue.
Keep your fireplace damper closed unless a fire is going. Keeping the damper open is like keeping a window wide open during the winter; it allows warm air to go right up the chimney.
When you use the fireplace, reduce heat loss by opening dampers in the bottom of the firebox (if provided) or open the nearest window slightly – approximately 1 inch – and close doors leading into the room. Lower the thermostat setting to between 50 degrees and 55 degrees Fahrenheit.
Install tempered glass doors and a heat-air exchange system that blows warmed air back into the room.
Check the seal on the flue damper and make it as snug as possible.
Add caulking around the fireplace hearth.
Use grates made of C-shaped metal tubes to draw cool air into the fireplace and circulate warm air back into the roof
Cooling Tips
Whole-house fans help cool your home by pulling cool air through the house and exhausting warm air through the attic. They are effective when operated at night and when the outside air is cooler than the inside.
Set your thermostat as high as comfortably possible in the summer. The less difference between the indoor and outdoor temperatures, the lower your overall cooling bill will be.
Don’t set your thermostat as a colder setting than normal when you turn on your air conditioner. It will not cool your home any faster and could result in excessive cooling and therefore, unnecessary expense.
Consider using an interior fan in conjunction with your window air conditioner to spread the cooled air more effectively through your home without greatly increasing your power use.
Don’t place lamps or TV sets near your air conditioning thermostat. The thermostat senses heat from these appliances, which can cause the air conditioner to run longer than necessary.
Plant trees or shrubs to shade air conditioning units but not to block the airflow. Place your room air conditioner on the north side of the house. A unit operating in the shade uses as much as 10% less electricity than the same one operating in the sun.
Keep in mind that insulation and sealing air leaks will help your energy performance in the summertime by keeping the cool air inside.
Programmable Thermostats
You can save as much as 10% a year on your heating and cooling bills by simply turning your thermostat back 10% to 15% for 8 hours. You can do this automatically without sacrificing comfort by installing an automatic setback or programmable thermostat. Using a programmable thermostat, you can adjust the times you turn on the heating or air conditioning according to a pre-set schedule. As a result, the equipment doesn’t operate as much when you are asleep or when the house, or part of it, is not occupied. Programmable thermostats can store and repeat multiple daily settings (six or more temperature settings a day) that you can manually override without affecting the rest of the daily or weekly program. When shopping for a programmable thermostat, be sure to look for the ENERGY STAR.