Three Ways To Reduce Your Heating Costs
Posted on: 5 August 2015
Heating a home through the winter can be an expensive proposition. If you want to have more money available to fund your winter adventures, then you should consider taking steps to improve your home's energy efficiency. By developing a strategy for improving the energy efficiency of your home, you should be able to make your heating costs more manageable.
Install Storm Windows
The windows of you home are one of the weakest points in your home's insulation envelope. In fact, windows are responsible for about a third of the typical home's heat loss. Storm windows can reduce heat loss through windows by up to 15%. Installing an interior storm window can cost as little as $60 while an exterior storm window will cost around $160. On the other hand, installing a new window can cost as much as $600; thus, installing a storm window is much less costly than installing a new window. By making your home better able to retain heat, you decrease the need for your furnace to run to keep your home warm, and the less your furnace runs, the more money you save.
Install Window Film
Low-e window film presents a second option for improving the energy efficiency of your windows. Low-e film is a coating that you adhere to your windows, and once installed, it will reflect heat back from your windows into your house. There is some variability in how much window film will cost, but you should be able to have it installed on your windows for between $4-$15 per square foot. Thus, for a three-square-foot windows, you will only have to pay at the most $45. Because windows film can reduce your heating costs by up to 25%, installing low-e film is one of the most cost-effective options out there.
Plant a Windscreen
Your furnace heats your home by convection. As air moves over the heat exchanger in your furnace, the air absorbs heat from the exchanger which both cools the exchanger and warms the air. Wind blowing over your house cools your home in the same way. The wind absorbs heat from your house, which produces a net cooling effect. By planting trees on the north and northwest sides of your house, you can block the wind and reduce your heating costs by up to 30%.
The strategies for reducing heating costs suggested above should be sufficient to illustrate that heating costs are far from set in stone. Even if you don't have a lot of budget available, you should be able to find a way to reduce your heating costs. Starting with low-e film is probably the least expensive way to improve your home's energy efficiency, but you can apply more strategies as you have the ability. Contact local professionals, such as those from Nebraska Heating & Air, for further assistance.
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