Every time your energy bill comes around, you can’t help but notice the heating and cooling costs are taking chunks out of your savings. Why? It might be time to schedule maintenance on your home’s HVAC systems.
What is HVAC? HVAC is an acronym that means heating, ventilation and air conditioners. It encompasses all the different and unique systems that heat and cool your home.
What’s Hiking My Bill Up?
It can be one thing or a number of things. Has the sealing and insulating in your home been properly installed? With properly installed insulation and sealing, your heating and cooling bill will thank you when its cost has been decreased by up to 20 percent. As a rule of thumb, your insulation thickness should be anywhere from 12 inches to 15 inches if your home has an attic.
How about your windows? Your energy bill can see another decrease in its cost between 7 percent to 24 percent by investing in Energy Star qualified windows.
What about your HVAC systems themselves? If you have been hanging on to an old HVAC system as old as 10 to 15 years, then now is the time to get rid of it. Entropy is a HVAC system’s worst enemy. No matter how long it has been working and how many times you have had it serviced, it will never work as well as it did back in its heyday. It can be made worse if the heating and cooling system was installed improperly because that can really take a bite out of a HVAC systems efficiency by as much as 30 percent.
Smart Home Technology
With the advancement of HVAC systems and phones came the union of smart home technology. Apps associated with your HVAC systems help to regulate your home while reducing energy waste and save money. These systems are accompanied by “smart” products like smart thermostats or smart light bulbs that allow for another layer of control to a device or a system’s output. With this level of control, it allows for your home to be far more energy efficient and cut down on that energy bill that has been skyrocketing lately. Not to mention, smart home technology even allows for “triggers” that your systems adhere to when certain parameters are met, like automatic lighting as soon as you enter your home, eliminating the need to fumble around for the switch on the wall.