4 Energy Efficient Home Heating and Cooling Tips

When it comes to heating and cooling your home, sometimes keeping your space at a comfortable, consistent temperature, can feel like a serious challenge. When it comes to extreme weather and rapidly rising and dropping temperatures, keeping a home insulated or cooled can also take a huge toll on the electric bill. However, there are many ways around this. Here are just a few things you can do on your own to efficiently keep your home warm or cool year round.

1. Only Use What You Need

The first rules of thumb when efficiently controlling your home’s temperature is to make sure you’re only using energy as a last resort. Before turning on the A/C or heating unit, try cooling out the room with a fan for an hour or insulating the room with dark drapes. If you do have to use the A/C or heater, try using them only for short amounts of time, using them just enough to heat or cool the room and then trapping the cold or hot air in.

2. Make Sure Your Home is Airtight

Any cracks or gaps in your home could be the cause of drafts and inefficient heating. Before a surge of extreme weather, always be sure to go around the house checking windows, doors, and any other openings for drafts. You can seal up windows with many different materials, and buying a door sweep is a great way to trap air in and keep cold or hot air out.

Keeping the air out of your home is by far the most efficient way to gain control over the home’s temperature, especially if you’ve invested in energy-efficient heating and cooling technology. There’s no point in using the best temperature control technology if it’s going to be counteracted by drafts. Using insulation around the house in drafty areas like chimneys and window fixtures can act as an additional sealing device to trap the heat in.

3. Make Sure Everything is Up to Date

While you’re sealing up all the cracks in your home before an influx of extreme weather, it’s also a good idea to make sure all your equipment is up to date. For instance, if your AC or heating unit is more than ten years old, it might be a good idea to look into a replacement unit or a central heating or cooling system. In addition to making sure everything’s running as it should, it’s a good idea to consider switching to propane heat rather than electric in the winter. A local Virginia propane supplier, for instance, will not only be able to switch from high-cost electric heat to the more affordable propane but will be able to give you even more solid tips on how to trap the heat in your home and make it last.

4. Keep Spaces Open and Unobstructed, and Use Window Treatments and Coverings

If you’re trying to heat or cool a room efficiently, it always helps to first make sure that the air will be able to circulate freely. If you’re noticing anything in the way of air vents, like lamps or furniture, move them out of the way to create an uncluttered and free path for the air to move through. Especially when it comes to smaller rooms, moving around larger objects to allow for better ventilation can make a huge difference in air circulation.

Even if you’ve thoroughly sealed up your windows, replaced them with storm fronts, and have done the necessary maintenance to keep them draft-free, you may want to consider purchasing heavy drapes made of insular material. Large, heavy drapes to the work of attracting outside sunlight while keeping drafts out. Many window hangings actually come with reversible options to best suit the changing seasons. The dark colors that work to absorb heat in the winter can later be switched out in the summer to repel the heat and create a lighter, more open space.

Both interior and exterior blinds can go a long way toward keeping a room insulated. Since windows are the number one source of light, heat, and air coming in, the better protected each window is, the better. A combination of dark drapes, customizable blinds, and window tinting could help regulate temperature in larger rooms while also contributing to design, ventilation, and privacy. The best thing about window treatments is that they aren’t permanent and can be switched out or removed depending on the season.