While Texas weather is usually known for being pleasant and warm, there can be some unexpected cold snaps during the winter months. Of course, your first instinct, when it gets cold, might be to crank up the heat. However, this can get a bit pricey over time. If you’re interested in saving money and energy, check out these tips for improving your home’s heating efficiency.
Open Your Window Coverings on Sunny Days
Whenever possible, let the sun do the work of warming your house for you. Heavy window drapes and even some types of blinds keep a lot of UV light from coming inside your house. However, by opening these coverings, you let warm sun rays shine inside. This can easily raise temperatures in your home by a degree or two. However, keep in mind that you shouldn’t be leaving your window coverings open all the time. Thick curtains can actually be a great way to insulate windows from drafts. Therefore, you’ll need to make sure you only uncover your windows at times when they are getting direct sunlight.
Close Gaps Around Doors and Windows
Your doors and windows are often some of the biggest causes of heat loss in your home. Minor gaps allow heat to escape quickly, so your heating system has to run for longer amounts of time to keep your house feeling comfortable. Before each cold season, it’s smart to walk around your house and check for gaps near all windows and doors. If you aren’t sure whether there is a draft, hold a candle flame or piece of tissue paper near the door and see if it flutters due to an invisible breeze. Once you identify problem spots, work to close up all the gaps. Caulk can be an effective fix for narrow spaces around windows, and you can get detachable rubber seals that stop drafts around doors.
Get a Humidifier
Even if the dry weather in winter doesn’t bother you, adding a little humidity to your home is still smart. The tiny moisture droplets in humid air help to hold onto heat a little better than dry air does. This allows extra warmth to linger in your home. Though it’s only a small change, you’ll find that it keeps the air inside your house feeling much more comfortable.
Dress More Warmly
In some cases, you can improve heating efficiency just by changing your personal habits. If you typically like to wear shorts and a T-shirt at home, it’s probably worth rethinking how you dress. A few light layers can help you to feel warm even if your heater isn’t running at maximum capacity. While not everyone is willing to do this, if you don’t mind wearing a sweater and some thick socks indoors, you can save quite a bit of money on heating.
Use a Smart Thermostat
If you don’t already have a smart thermostat, a Texas winter can be a great motivation to switch. This style of thermostat is one of the easiest ways to improve HVAC efficiency. It works by learning your schedule and avoiding running your HVAC when you aren’t at home. Most people set their smart thermostats to turn off the heater for a few hours during the day while they’re at work. The thermostat can get things running before you come home, so you never notice that your home feels chilly. If you want extra savings, you can even set it up to drop the temperature when you’re warm and under blankets in bed and won’t notice a bit of a chill.
Update Your Home’s Insulation
If you want maximum efficiency and don’t mind doing some renovations around your home, adding extra insulation is an excellent choice. There are a lot of modern insulating materials that can keep your heat from leaking out of your ceiling and walls. In some cases, options like blow-in insulation can easily be added to your home without requiring you to replace your drywall or make other huge renovations. Your attic is a particularly smart area to insulate if you want to keep your home as warm as possible. Since heat rises, a lot of it ends up escaping through your ceilings. Adding insulation in your attic can ensure your heat doesn’t all end up leaving the house.
Run a Space Heater
For those who have a big house with a lot of unused space, it’s important to avoid heating all of it unnecessarily. You might find that turning down the thermostat a little bit and running a space heater in your bedroom or living room is a good compromise. This can keep your frequently used rooms warm without requiring you to spend a bunch of money heating random guest rooms and storage spaces. However, keep in mind that a space heater only uses less energy than central heating when it’s used to heat a small space. Space heaters are actually less efficient overall than regular heaters, so running one in every room of the house will use more energy than your central heater. If you want to save energy and money with this method, stick to one small room in your house and keep it warm.
Add Rugs to Your Hardwood and Tile Floors
Carpets might be out of fashion to some people, but it is a great way of keeping your house warm. Thick, upholstered materials help to trap more heat than hardwood or tile. If your home has the latter type of flooring, a lot of excess chill from the ground can seep into your home. Adding rugs provides you with an extra layer of insulation. It’s also a great way to trick your mind a little bit. Stepping onto a warm rug instead of an icy floor can help to avoid setting off chills that make you want to turn your thermostat temperature up.
Get Your Heater Maintained
In Texas, most people have their HVAC equipment serviced in spring. While a spring tune-up is certainly essential, fall or winter service is also advisable. This ensures that your entire heating system is running as efficiently as possible. During maintenance, your technician will clean parts of the system so that it can transfer heat more efficiently. Maintenance also involves tightening loose fittings that might subtly make your heater work harder. The final perk is that it can catch silent problems with your HVAC system. This lets you fix your machine instead of continuing to run it while it’s not operating at its full capacity.
Ultimately, these sorts of actions might seem small, but they add up over time. Taking the time to improve your home’s heating efficiency can result in a more comfortable environment with less waste. At Cowboys Air Conditioning & Heating, we’re committed to helping San Antonio residents get the best heating systems possible. In addition to providing efficiency tips, we can also assist you with a variety of repair, maintenance, and installation services. Other matters that we handle include AC repair and installation. Contact us today to schedule an appointment or ask us about our maintenance agreement!
