Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning

Heating and cooling costs make up a large proportion of many people's household bills. The following tips can help to make your home's HVAC system work more efficiently so you can save money.

1. Insulate Your Home

Installing insulation in your home can help to trap heat inside in winter and keep it outside in summer. As a result, the strain on your home heating and cooling systems will be lower and they will use less energy to keep your home at the correct temperature.

Adding attic insulation is one of the easiest ways to insulate your home. This form of insulation is particularly good at reducing heating costs, as it prevents hot air from rising up into your attic and transferring heat to the outside. You can purchase rolls of attic insulation from a hardware store and lay them in your attic yourself, or you can hire a contractor to carry out a more sophisticated installation.

Other insulation options include double glazing, cavity wall insulation, and insulation around doors and windows. All of these can help reduce costs in both summer and winter.

2. Replace HVAC Filters

Replacing the filters in your home HVAC system is an essential part of its maintenance. Over time, filters clog up with the substances that they filter out of the air, including lint, dust, pollen, and dirt, which reduces the amount of air that can flow through the system. Heating and cooling bills go up as the HVAC system works much harder to drive air around the home. By replacing the filters whenever they start to become blocked, you can keep the system working more efficiently and therefore reduce your bills.

3. Schedule Regular HVAC Maintenance Checks

In addition to taking care of HVAC filters yourself, it is important to schedule regular maintenance checks for your home heating and cooling system. An annual service can help to reduce the chance of the system breaking down and allow it to operate as efficiently as possible.

4. Work With the Weather

Pay attention to the weather when making decisions about how you behave in your home. For example, close blinds on hot days to prevent the sun from heating up the air inside your home. You can also reduce excess heat inside your home in summer by avoiding using heat-generating appliances, such as tumble dryers. Take advantage of the fine weather to dry your clothes outside instead.