The cost of keeping your home warm during a Canadian winter can be staggering. Learn how to reduce monthly heating bills with these helpful hints, such as adding more insulation, fixing drafts, lowering your thermostat when you’re not at home, and servicing your furnace. If you are looking for a reliable HVAC technician to service your furnace, or if it is time to replace your old unit for a more energy efficient model, contact the experts at Draft Control. You can trust Draft Control to keep your furnace running efficiently and offer you sound advice you can trust when purchasing a new furnace.
Helpful Tips to Reduce Monthly Heating Bill
Here are our top tips that will give you some great ways to cut heating costs in your home. Learn how to reduce heating costs, save money as a result, and cut down on your environmental footprint by using fewer of our natural resources.
Reduce monthly heating bill: Wear warm clothing inside so you can turn your thermostat down
Tip #1: Heat Yourself and Your Family Before You Heat Your Home
Winter in Canada is not the time for wearing t-shirts and shorts. Pull on your cozy sweaters, fuzzy socks, and warm slippers – or at least dress in more than one layer when you are at home and encourage your family to do the same. Then you can turn your thermostat down to 20 C (68 F) and still be comfortable. You’ll save on your energy bill and you’ll also find out how amazingly relaxing it feels to cuddle up in a comfy chair or couch to watch TV or read a good book.
Tip #2: Add Insulation to Your Attic:
An easy trick for telling if your home is well insulated or not is after your next snowfall, take a look at your roof. If your roof still has snow on it and it hasn’t melted all away then that is a sign that it is well-insulated. If your roof is clear and other roofs in your neighbourhood are snow-covered, then you are losing precious heat through your roof. Adding extra insulation can help to reduce monthly heating bill.
Snow Staying on Your Roof Means You Probably Have Good Insulation
Tip #3: Have Your Furnace Serviced
Like anything mechanical, a furnace that has been regularly serviced and properly maintained will run much more efficiently than one that has been ignored. Make sure you get your furnace serviced at least once a year, preferably at the beginning of the cold season and call for servicing if you suspect that it isn’t running as good as it should.
Tip #4: Replace Your Furnace if It Is Too Old or Not Working
There comes a point when a furnace is past its best and needs to be replaced. If you find that you are constantly calling for repairs or if it is an older, non-efficient model, it may be time to get a newer energy-saving unit. Check with your local or provincial governments to find out if you qualify for any incentive plans or rebates. You can also check out the Government of Canada’s EcoEnergy Retrofit Program that offers qualifying applicants with grants to help make your home more energy efficient.
Replacing your furnace with an energy efficient one will help reduce monthly heating bill
Tip #5: Keep Your Window Treatments Closed after Sundown
On sunny days, take advantage of the sun’s heat and open up your curtains, blinds, or shutters. Once the sun goes down though, make sure you close up your window treatments to keep the heat inside.
Tip #6: Turn Your Thermostat Down When You Aren’t Home
Don’t waste energy by heating your home too much when no one is there. It’s a good idea to turn the temperature down to 16 C (60.8 F) when you leave. If you have pets they will still be fine at this lower temperature, after all, they are wearing fur coats. But if you are worried (or if your pet has less fur and shivers in the cold) you can provide them with a warm spot with lots of blankets to burrow underneath to stay warm and toasty.
Reduce monthly heating bill: Your furry friends will be fine in a slightly cooler house
Tip #7: Turn Down Your Thermostat When You Are Sleeping
You actually don’t need your home as warm when you are tucked up snug and warm in your bed. Turn your thermostat down to 16C while your sleep. Throw on a couple of extra blankets if you like and then dream about all of the extra money that you will save.
Tip #8: Invest in a Programmable Thermostat
If you don’t want to or can’t remember to always turn down your thermostat when you need to, invest in a programmable one. There are many quite reasonable ones on the market that you can set to lower the temperature automatically as you are going to be or when you leave in the morning and also to turn up the heat just before you wake up or arrive home so you won’t even notice the change.
Invest in a programmable thermostat to automatically adjust the temperature in your home – Image Source: Amazon
Tip #9: Shut Off Any Rooms You Aren’t Using
It doesn’t make sense to be heating rooms that you are not using. Close the vents in your unused rooms and shut the doors.
Tip #10: Shut the Flue for Your Wood-Burning Fireplace
If you have a wood-burning fireplace, make sure you keep the flue shut when you are not using it. You will lose an incredible amount of heat that will rise right up and out the flue if it is not closed.
Tip #11: Fix Any Drafts in Your Home
If you feel any drafts coming into your home through your windows and doors, fix those by installing weather stripping or if your windows and doors are really old, you might want to look into investing in new energy-efficient ones.
Tip #12: Invest in or Make Door and Window Draft Snakes
An inexpensive way to cut down on drafts that works quite well is to use draft snakes. They are cute, fun to make and they really work quite well on cutting down drafts and keeping your home warmer. Here is a great video that shows you how to easily make your own custom draft snake.
Using draft snakes are a great and economical idea to reduce monthly heating bill
Tip #13: Install Ceiling Fans
Hot air rises, so the air up on your ceiling is much hotter than the air down where you are. Ceiling fans do a great job of pushing the hot air back down to where you and your family are and they help to circulate the warmth. You can also enjoy the benefit of ceiling fans when the weather turns hotter.
Draft Control – Furnace Service, Repair, and Installations You Can Trust
Draft Control HVAC is a highly trusted heating and air conditioning company servicing the East Ottawa region. Unlike other companies, we focus on our customers and their complete satisfaction, not on the brands that we sell. Whether you require installation, repair, or maintenance for your furnace, air conditioner, water heater, gas BBQ and fireplace, or boiler; you can trust Draft Control. Contact us today for all your heating and cooling needs..
“Selim came out to our place to quote a replacement air conditioner and hot water tank. He was honest, and did not try to sell us something we didn’t need…He certainly takes pride in his work, and hands down I would recommend him to anyone looking for HVAC work. Thanks Selim!” -Ryan M
Financing Available!
Great news, Draft Control now offers financing through EcoHome Financial. If you know that you need to a new air conditioner and furnace and want to replace HVAC system, but you weren’t sure how you were going to do it financially, we can help. Contact Draft Control to learn more.
We Even Offer a Military Discount!
Draft Control is proud to offer a 10% discount to our military personnel. Contact us today to learn more.
