Find Your Path To Comfort & Savings

You can easily lose your way trying to keep your home comfortable at an affordable cost. Here is some advice to help you stay on the right path to both comfort and savings.

Avoid going in circles with indoor air

These days, we recognize the value of breathing in healthy indoor air more than ever. Improving your indoor air quality (IAQ) is a big part of keeping your home comfortable, energy-efficient and healthy too.

Today, there are air purifying systems that use the latest technology to destroy airborne viruses, mold and bacteria. Air purifiers reduce household odors as well.

Air cleaning systems will also remove dust and other particles from your home that can trigger allergic reactions and cause respiratory ailments.

Additional IAQ solutions include humidifiers that add moisture to the air in your home directly through your duct system. This keeps indoor humidity at comfortable and healthy levels. Plus, ventilators can be used to bring in fresh outdoor air while expelling stale, unhealthy air, all without affecting indoor temperatures.

Want to breathe easier and keep your home healthier? Contact us today and we’ll be glad to help get you started.

Don’t get lost in hot and cold spots

One of the most common signs of poor airflow is the presence of hot and cold spots in your home. Here are some of the causes:

An old or poorly maintained heating system. As heating systems age, performance can drop off dramatically. That’s why it’s so important to get professional heating maintenance throughout your equipment’s life – and to replace it when you notice signs of old age, such as the need for frequent repairs.
Blower fan problems. A blower fan in your furnace forces air through your ductwork to deliver heat to your living space. But blower fans have motors, and motors can weaken or eventually break down. If your blower fan becomes sluggish, poor airflow can result.
Leaky, poorly installed or undersized ductwork. Your ducts deliver heated air from your furnace or heat pump to your living space. But in many homes, as much as 30% of the heated air could be getting lost along the way as a result of faulty ductwork.
Blocked vents/registers. Furniture, drapes and other items can restrict the heated air coming out of your vents. This will disrupt airflow, decrease heating efficiency and make your system work extra hard to keep your home warm. The solution, of course, is to keep your heating vents clear whenever possible.

Keep your heating system in sight

If you get regular maintenance done on your gas furnace or heat pump, your heating system should be ready to handle anything winter brings our way. But even though your heater may be out of sight, don’t let it be out of mind.

During the heating season, change or clean the air filter in your furnace or heat pump a few times. A clogged filter will severely lower heating efficiency and can even result in a shutdown.

Air filters are located either behind the return-air vent or in the ductwork near the heat pump’s air handler or the furnace’s blower fan. Some filters are designed to be discarded and replaced periodically. Some have a plastic frame. If yours does, you can clean and reuse it.

Ultimately, you should always refer to the manufacturer’s instructions and be sure to turn off the furnace or heat pump before you do anything with the filter.

Navigate your way to safety

Keep the area around your heating equipment as clean and clutter-free as possible. Never store anything flammable near your heating system.
If you ever smell gas, leave your home right away. Report the problem from another location as soon as possible.
Install carbon monoxide (CO) detectors in your home, following the manufacturer’s instructions about location and maintenance. You should have functional smoke detectors too.
Make sure your outdoor vents remain clear of debris so that combustion gases don’t back up into your home.

Repair or replace: which way should you go?

If your boiler or furnace is at least 15 years old, consider replacing your heating system soon; the performance and reliability of heating equipment typically deteriorates after 15 years (sooner if maintenance has been neglected). And just like computers and smartphones, heating equipment becomes outdated over time.

With better technology, a new high-efficiency heating oil system can often pay for itself within a relatively short period of time with the money you save each year on heating costs. After that, you can start adding up all of your energy savings!

At minimum, a new system should help you save up to 20% on your annual heating costs. (If you significantly improve system efficiency, savings can be even higher.) You’ll feel the difference in comfort too. You’ll also save on repairs because you’ll minimize the potential of a system breakdown, a common problem with old systems.