Here are ten ways to heat your home more efficiently and cost-effectively this winter:
1) Have heating system cleaned and serviced annually. Consider scheduled replacement of a boiler that is 40 years or older and a furnace that is 20 years or older. These are average service life expectancies. While many factors should be considered, emergency weekend and evening hour labor costs for replacement in the winter is generally much more expensive that scheduled weekday replacement.
2) Install a programmable thermostat, or at a minimum, lower the temperature during the day when not home and at night when sleeping. Both 24 hour thermostats and 7 day thermostats are available. The 7 day programmable thermostat allows different temperature settings for weekends.
3) Consider heating system modifications to allow heat temperature control in different rooms or areas. Adding zones to a hot water system allows thermostats to be installed in areas to control temperature. Splitting the system to allow temperature control at a second floor or bedroom areas is especially important as that area can be kept cooler that the family room. With steam systems, thermostatic valves allow temperature setting at each radiator. Hot air systems may be a little trickier to split but some systems may allow the installation of automatic dampers that allow delivery of air to certain areas or rooms. Most hot air systems have dampers that are installed in the ducting that may be accessed from a basement, crawlspace or above suspended ceilings for better control and balancing. In room control of registers allow rooms to be shut off or partially shut off for air delivery from the ducting.
4) If the system is an older hot water system, bleed the radiators. Removing air from the radiators allows the entire radiator to produce heat rather than just a limited section. Steam systems have certain vents on each radiator that need to perform properly and should be checked by the service person during annual service.
5) Keep furniture at least 6 inches away from the radiators, any baseboard heaters or ducting registers. Do not remove screened radiator covers from steam radiators as contact with the radiators and piping may cause serious burns especially with children or the elderly. Electric heaters are of greater concern as the element, the heating section components at the interior of the unit, gets quite hot and may melt plastic or electric wiring if in contact. Tables, dressers or anything that may hold electric devices should also be kept away from electric heaters as the extension cords may accidentally become in contact with the element, a cause of fire. Also, it’s best to keep windows treatments of all kinds well away from electric heaters.
6) With hot air systems, most disposable air filters should be replaced monthly while a small number of disposable type filters are replaced annually. Permanent air filters should be vacuumed, washed, dried and placed back into service. Electronic air cleaners require cleaning as per instructions. Radiators and baseboard heaters should be cleaned and vacuumed. Placing foil behind a radiator will increase the heat radiated from the unit.
7) Keep humidity levels adequate in the areas heated. The moisture level of the air being heated feels warmer with adequate humidity. This is important but one must be careful not to overdue this. Over humidification can create serious problems within a home resulting in moisture damage and mold grow. Personal health problems, generally respiratory, often accompany these concerns. Too much humidification concerns cannot be overstated. Older homes have a greater transfer of heat and humidity with the exterior air resulting in air drawn from outside that is low in humidity. Some new very efficient homes retain too much humidity and the conditioned air needs to be dehumidified. The installation of a humidifier with a hot air system allows central control with a humidistat. Trays are commercially available to be placed onto radiators and hot water baseboard heaters to allow evaporation to occur as the radiator operates. Don’t use the tray method on electric heaters as spillage may cause a shock hazard or unit malfunction. Talk to your heating technician, insulation/ventilation expert, or some other qualified individual for addition information concerning humidification.
8) Be sure the home is insulated to the maximum for your area. If you are insulating yourself insure you do not block ventilation sources that are necessary. Blocked ventilation sources in attic spaces is a common error that homeowners make when insulating that often creates serious long term problems. Have your home evaluated to insure any needed insulation is installed as soon as possible.
9) Inspect all windows and doors for worn, aged or missing weatherstripping and replace as needed. Consider replacement doors and windows if the units are the single pane units or older double pane units that are worn and deteriorated.
10) Consider the installation of an efficient secondary heating unit such as a gas stove, wood or pellet stove, gas fireplace or other efficient unit that delivers heat. The secondary heating unit is generally placed centrally and/or in a room the family occupies most often. This provides the opportunity to keep the thermostat and temperature throughout the entire house lower yet provides comfortable temperatures where the people gather.
