The cooler months have finally arrived! There’s nothing like a thick scarf, cozy socks, and a roaring fire (…okay, maybe we’ll get the fire going once or twice a year here in Texas). If you’re anything like our team here at DTC, you take full advantage of the colder weather. But there’s a few things that come with winter that are unwelcome – and one of those is the gas bill. With seemingly no notice at all, your utility bill skyrockets to three, four, even five times as much as it is in other months of the year.
In this blog, we’re going to provide some tips for how to keep those energy bills as low as possible without breaking the bank.
Lower Your Thermostat
Keeping your thermostat low can save you some serious cash. Sure, there’s nothing like going barefoot in your home during those winter months, but the tradeoff for that is higher energy bills. We recommend lowering your thermostat one degree at a time, and adding some layers to your outfit.
Layer Up At Night
The temperatures take a dip in the evening hours, which translates to your furnace operating for longer than daytime hours. Instead, consider adding some warm blankets to your bed linens. Here in the Georgetown area, you won’t need any heavy duty to keep you nice and warm overnight.
Seal Up Leaky Doors and Windows
Twice a year, inspect all the sealing points of your home to check for leaks. Sealing cracks and openings at your doors and windows can make a big difference in your home comfort. When your home has a tight seal at all points, any heat you have stays inside rather than leaking to the outside. As an added bonus, sealing up leaks can help with your air conditioning bills in the summer. Win-win!
Change the Direction of Your Ceiling Fans
Ceiling fans can help keep your home cool in the summer, but many Texans might overlook the benefit of using them in the winter! During most of the year, ceiling fans rotate counterclockwise which pushes air down into the living spaces. By reversing the direction, your fans will create an updraft, which pushes the nice warm air at the top of the ceiling, down to the people in the space.
Schedule a Heater Tuneup
If you don’t normally schedule a heater tuneup, now is the perfect time to start. First, during a maintenance visit a technician will check for ways to optimize your system, improving performance and reducing energy use. And, tune ups can help prevent breakdowns. And as we all know, a broken furnace is the only thing worse than one that’s not working at its peak.
Energy Savings in the Winter
Saving energy in the colder months is something that requires just a little bit of thought and a little bit of action. If your furnace is turning into a true energy hog, it could be time to replace it. Call our team for a professional opinion on whether your system can be restored to a higher level of performance, or if it’s time for a replacement.
We pride ourselves on providing honest opinions on every job, so you can rely on our team to be trustworthy. DTC provides heating repair and replacement services to Georgetown and surrounding areas like Cedar Park, Hutto, Leander, Pflugerville, and Round Rock.Call us anytime for furnace maintenance, repair, or replacement!