Our customers in Ajax are always asking how to save money on heating, and we have a handful of tips for both short and long term savings.
Incremental savings add up. If you can save $50 a year by making small lifestyle changes, and you can make 5 or 10 changes, that’s a decent chunk of change over the year. Would you rather spend more or less? Most people choose less, and here’s how we recommend you get there.
Invest in a humidifier.
Humid air feels warmer than dry air, and that’s all that really matters. How warm you and your family feel. 15C feels completely different in the rainforest on the west coast of Canada than it does in the middle of the Namib Desert in Namibia.
The humidity in the air slows the transfer of heat from your body to the surrounding environment.
A humidifier doesn’t have to be expensive or flush with features to help cut back on your heating expenses.
Of course a whole house humidifier is going to do a more thorough job, but if you spend most of your time in a couple smaller rooms, small humidifier units can do the job.
You’ll be able to set the thermostat lower by a few degrees, saving $100+ over the winter.
Don’t heat empty spaces.
If you spend most of your time in a few smaller rooms in the house, heat those rooms. Let the unused or rarely used rooms stay cold until you know they’re needed.
Close the vents in the spare bedrooms, close the doors and even block airflow with a towel under the door.
Heating a smaller space is more affordable, and reducing the space your furnace has to keep warm can save your family hundreds of dollars over the winter.
Make sure you check out our current rebates and specials to make sure you get the best deal.
By closing vents and doors one client was able to reduce the heating footprint of their home from 3,200 square feet to about 1800 square feet. It cut their heating bill in half.
Long term savings – stay on your maintenance schedule.
Furnace maintenance can extend the functional life of your furnace by years. You may never have to buy a new furnace if you stick to your maintenance schedule.
That’s thousands of dollars saved, even accounting for the few hundred you pay for maintenance itself.
Maintenance also keeps your furnace running cleanly, which is more economical than a furnace gummed up by a year or two of neglect. We can’t really put a dollar amount on this, but think of it like car maintenance. Skipping your oil change repeatedly will make the car less fuel efficient and eventually it’ll break down.
Stick with regular maintenance to save.
Get smart about heating your common spaces.
A fireplace, wood stove, electric heater or even ceiling fan can help keep the temperature in your common areas comfortable for less.
“But how do I save money on heating by using more things?”
The trick is to keep the majority of the house cool, setting the thermostat 5 degrees lower than you would like, and keeping the areas you most commonly use warm by heating them directly.
Get a quick quote on furnace maintenance with a couple clicks.
Your wood burning fireplace, aided by one or two electric space heaters on opposite ends of the open concept rec room, might be enough to keep your whole family warm 90% of the time.
The heating effect is magnified if you use your ceiling fan properly.
They have a summer setting, counterclockwise, and a winter setting, clockwise. A clockwise setting will circulate warm air, eliminating cool pockets in the room, without producing the cooling breeze you want in the summer.
We want to get you started with a good maintenance package or a whole new, high efficiency furnace that’ll last for decades.
Give us a call today to talk about your options.
