Saving on house heating and cooling

Your furnace is the most expensive appliance in your house to run. In fact household heating accounts for 60% of all energy used in the average home. Make sure it is operating as efficiently as possible by replacing its filter every two months. A great option is to purchase one of the reusable filters that can be washed on a regular basis. You’ll pay more for them but they last for years so in the end they cost less than disposable filters. The few minutes it will take you to properly care for your furnace can increase its energy efficiently by as much as 50 per cent.

Heating and cooling your house when no one is home or when everyone is in bed uses an unnecessary amount of energy. This is bad for the environment and bad for your checkbook! Instead of wasting that energy, buy a programmable thermostat and set the temperature to be several degrees cooler (or warmer in the summer) during the night and when the house is empty. You can easily have it back to the temperature you like by the time you wake up or arrive home.

If you have a hot water tank, using fiberglass blankets is a great idea for wrapping around it to help it hold in heat. Every hardware store sells fiberglass blankets and they are easily installed. In fact, you can do it yourself and they usually pay for themselves in the first year of use. Insulating the first meter of pipe leading into and out of your hot-water tank as well as any metal hot-water pipes running through unheated spaces in your home will reduce the amount of electricity you use and save you some money.

If your hot water tank is getting old and you are considering replacing it, choose one of the new tankless hot water options. They heat water as you need it instead of keeping an entire tank heated and ready to go at all times. As a result they use significantly less energy, which is better for the environment. An added bonus is that you can expect to save about 50% on your hot water heating costs.