Winter weather means higher heating bills for many Americans. Whether you use natural gas, oil, electricity, or another fuel to heat your house, the cooler temperatures push your heating system to work harder. If your heating costs are causing you pain in the piggy bank, you can do something about it.
Heating costs are a significant percentage of most households’ total energy use, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Even though your home, like many others, may devote almost half of the energy used to HVAC-related uses, you can save energy and money on your home heating costs. What can you do to lower your energy usage, boost your system’s efficiency, and save money?

Take a look at these energy and money-saving home heating tips.

Consider a New Heater

How old is your heater? If it’s more than 10 to 15 years old, you may need an upgrade. Older systems aren’t as energy efficient as new models. And that means that you’ll spend more money over time just to heat your home. An old heater that has worn parts, needs repairs often, or heats your home unevenly is a candidate for replacement.

Not only will worn parts reduce efficiency and cost you money in the long run, but your older heater may not burn its fuel as effectively as a more modern model. Comparing AFUE (annual fuel utilization efficiency) percentages can help you to pick the most efficient furnace or boiler. The higher the AFUE number, the more efficient your heater is. An older, low-efficiency heater typically has an AFUE between 56 percent and 70 percent. But a new, high-efficiency system’s AFUE can run between 90 percent and 98.5 percent. That’s a significant improvement when it comes to energy efficiency.

Schedule Regular Maintenance

Your heater needs a preseason checkup and cleaning. Regular maintenance can contribute to your furnace or boiler’s energy efficiency by making you aware of any worn or broken parts. When a heater starts breaking down, it may still work. But it won’t work as efficiently as it should.  The annual checkup gives the HVAC technician the opportunity to spot potential problems and swap out worn parts for new ones.

Along with fixing your system and preventing possible problems, an annual service check helps to remove the debris and buildup from your heater. Clogged filters, a dirt-covered heating unit, and debris-filled ducts can slow your heater down and make it work harder. This decreased efficiency requires more energy usage, increasing your bills.

Stop Air Leaks

Air leaks and uninsulated areas are sneaky culprits behind your home’s heating loss. Check around window and entry door areas, feeling for leaks. If you can feel the cold air coming in during the winter, you have a leak. Seal leaky window frames and entry doors, along with insulating spaces such as attics and basements, to save up to 15 percent on your home energy costs. 

Likewise, older, single-pane windows are drafty and won’t do much to hold the warm air in. Replace them with multipane, insulated windows that use gas sandwiched in between the glass to help raise your home’s energy efficiency and lower wintertime heating costs.

If you don’t have the home improvement budget to replace all of your windows, plastic window film or storm windows can help to insulate the area. Along with this, make sure to caulk and add weather-stripping around window and entry door frames.

Change the Thermostat

What’s your thermostat set at? Do you keep this setting the same all day and night long? Lowering the setting by as little as 7 to 10 degrees for eight hours of the day can save you 10 percent annually on your heating costs. Before you turn the thermostat way down, making yourself and anyone else in your home uncomfortable, consider your options.

Instead of dropping the temperature while you’re home, wait until you leave for work. If you don’t work outside the home, a nighttime thermostat change can save you money without making your home unbearably chilly.

Do you need a new energy-efficient heater or a preseason checkup? Custom Comfort Plumbing, Heating & Cooling LLC can help you to stay safe and warm.

One key component of your HVAC system is the ductwork it has hidden away in your home’s walls and ceilings. Ductwork is vital for your heating and cooling, but air ducts often have problems that cause inefficient heating, cooling and other issues. Here are several things to know about a poorly designed air duct system and the problems it causes.

The Purpose and Role of Air Ducts        

If you have a forced air furnace, the furnace heats and cools your home by forcing air into the rooms through air ducts. When an HVAC company installs a furnace in a new home, they place the air ducts in hidden areas of the home, such as the walls and ceilings.

The air ducts transfer conditioned air to your home, and this is what heats and cools your home in the summer and winter. Without air ducts, you could not have an air conditioning system.

When installing a system, the HVAC technicians try to design it in a way that the air ducts offer the most efficiency. This typically involves keeping the air duct spans as short as possible. In other words, they try to run the ducts straight to the rooms, instead of having twists and turns along the way.

Common Problems with Air Ducts

While your system needs air ducts for it to cool and heat your home, the air ducts in your home can experience problems that prevent them from doing their job properly and efficiently. Here are some common problems that cause inefficiency with air ducts:

• Improper design – If the HVAC company that installed the system did not design it properly, the system might not work efficiently. Improper design often refers to air ducts having to transport air too far. Technicians should design a system so the ducts travel shorter spans, if at all possible.
• Leaks or gaps in air ducts – Air ducts can develop holes over time, and two pieces joined together can separate. If this happens, leaks form and air seeps from them. This means that less conditioned air travels into the rooms of your home, and this creates higher energy bills and a lot of wasted energy.
• Lack of insulation on air ducts – HVAC technicians should also insulate air ducts. Insulation helps the ducts hold more air, which means they operate more efficiently. If your ducts do not have insulation, you are probably losing a lot of conditioned air.

These are some common problems homeowners experience with air ducts, but there are ways to fix these problems.

The Benefits Offered Through Redesigning and Fixing Air Ducts

To determine what is wrong with your air ducts, a technician will thoroughly look at the entire system. The technician will then decide what to do to improve the efficiency of your system. This may involve repairing leaks or replacing sections of your ductwork. It can also involve insulating the ducts the technician can access.

After the technician makes the necessary repairs, you will notice several key things:

1. It will be easier to heat and cool your home
2. Your energy bills will drop
3. Your home’s temperature will be more comfortable

If the technician notices that your ducts are dirty, he or she will recommend cleaning them. Air ducts often contain mold, mildew, dust and pet dander. If you want cleaner air in your home, you should consider getting the ducts cleaned if they are dirty.

If you feel that your air ducts might have problems, contact Custom Comfort. We can investigate your air duct system, locate problems and make the necessary repairs. Contact our friendly team today to schedule an appointment at a time that’s convenient for you.

If you’ve recently bought a new home, you may have had an appraisal, inspection and radon test as part of the purchasing process. These items are often required by the mortgage lender; extending a loan secured by a home that harbors a dangerous condition or is structurally unsound can cost the lender money, so ensuring your home meets or exceeds all relevant standards can render it a much safer investment.

Generally, the results of your radon test won’t be reported to you unless they indicate high radon levels inside the home.

While high radon levels can result in denial of a mortgage loan–and can sometimes give you the right to cancel a purchase agreement without penalty unless the seller agrees to pay for radon mitigation–borderline levels may be enough to pass your lender’s standards, even though this data could indicate a radon problem that needs attention.

Read on to learn more about this tasteless, odorless, colorless gas and how radon mitigation services can keep you and your family safe after you’ve purchased a new home.

What Causes Radon 

Radon, as the name implies, is a type of radioactive gas. Radon gas is generated within the earth’s crust by the natural decay of other radioactive minerals like uranium and plutonium, both generally contained within igneous, rather than sedimentary, rock. Radon can’t be seen, tasted, smelled or sensed; the only test for radon gas involves measuring the air for radioactivity.

This means that radon levels are naturally higher in parts of the country where uranium can be found in the soil. Radon levels are often higher in homes with basements or deep foundations, as the process of constructing a foundation disturbs the soil and allows radon gas to escape.

Mobile homes that aren’t on a permanent foundation and require no digging are unlikely to have high radon levels unless constructed in an area with generally high radioactivity.

What Radon Causes

Long-term exposure to radon gas is second only to cigarette smoking when it comes to common causes of lung cancer.

Radon exposure can also be exponential in severity. For example, a homeowner whose home has 4 picoCuries of radon per liter of air (4 pCi/L), considered the maximum upper limit of radon presence, is exposed to 35 times as much radiation as would be present at the fence of a radioactive waste site. The lower the radon level is in your home, the safer you are.  

However, many homeowners aren’t aware of their home’s radon level, and those who are just below the 4 pCi/L limit may be told they “pass” the radon test without realizing the critical nature of this borderline-high reading.

Radon is of particular concern when there are small children in the home. Because children breathe more rapidly than adults and their cells split more frequently due to the speed with which they grow, childhood radon exposure can be far more harmful than adult radon exposure.

A sobering one in every five homes throughout the U.S.– including homes in every state from Maine to Hawaii–have higher-than-recommended radon levels, rendering this both a personal and a public health concern.

Mitigating Radon Levels 

If you’re not comfortable with your home’s radon readings, you’ll want to enlist some help to lower these levels and control the amount of radon gas in your home at any given time. This is generally accomplished by the installation of a radon mitigation system.

The right radon mitigation system for your home will depend largely upon your home’s construction and the type of foundation it has. In some cases, you’ll need to keep radon from getting into your home at all; in others, your best bet is to focus your energies on reducing radon levels once the gas has already made its way into your home. Often, you’ll be able to stop the flow of radon before its point of entry through using an exhaust system of underground pipes and fans that can pump any radioactive air safely away from your foundation.

In homes with crawlspaces that allow air to pass between the bare ground and the bottom of your home’s floor, you’ll have even more of an opportunity to intercept any radon-containing air before it manages to seep upward through your floor. Reinforcing the subfloor can provide an additional layer of protection, as can repairing any cracks, holes or other defects in your foundation that may be allowing radon gas to flow through. 

It’s also a good idea to have your home’s air regularly tested for radon for the first few years after the installation of a mitigation system. By sampling air in various parts of your home, mitigation specialists will be able to narrow down the potential points of radon entry to make your air filtration and exhaust system more effective and efficient at removing tainted air from your home.