Installing energy-efficient systems and equipment into your house is a step in the right direction towards sustainability. It’s an honorable task to lighten your home’s carbon footprint. In fact, in a study published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, residential energy use accounts for a whopping 20% of total greenhouse gas emissions in the USA. That’s quite a bit!
As you explore energy-efficient options for your home, it’s important to also include maintenance plans to keep everything running at full capacity.
Today, we’re going to focus on how to run your furnace as efficiently as possible. These are all things you can do at home– but if you ever need the support of a professional, reach out to your Central Texas team at Ellis AC for support.
The Most Energy-Efficient Way to Run Your Furnace
Clear the Air Vents
Do a quick inspection of your home. Have you renovated or moved furniture around since the last time you ran your furnace? It’s common for furniture, heavy curtains, or even toys to block the heating vents. The first step is to remove any blockages to your home’s vents.
Additionally, it’s important to dust regularly to avoid buildup.
Next, it’s important that you don’t keep the doors in your home closed for extended periods of time unless sleeping at night. By closing off certain rooms, you block airflow and offset your home’s air pressure. Your furnace will need to work overtime to rebalance the air pressure– meaning its system is working harder, using more energy, and driving up your energy bill.
Change Furnace Filter
Dirt, pollen, dust, and pet hair can all get trapped in your air filter. This buildup can cause your furnace to work extra hard to produce the same amount of heat, and push it through the filter. This can cause your home’s furnace to prematurely break down.
In more serious cases, clogged filters can push the heat exchangers to crack. When heat exchangers are damaged, they can allow toxic carbon monoxide to escape into your home.
Instead of wondering what’s floating around in your home’s air, we recommend inspecting your filters every month. Additionally, we suggest changing dirty filters out every three months. Or, if you have a family member with respiratory issues, it’s even better to change out the filter once a month. This will ensure that the air is clean and passes easily through your vents.
Clean Out the Furnace
Once a year, we recommend grabbing a vacuum with a long extender and heading over to your furnace. Remove the access panels, and clear out any debris or dust that’s gathered around your furnace. This small act will set your furnace up for success in the long run
Lower the Temperature
As difficult as it may be to consider, it might be best to lower your home’s temperature for a bit. But not to worry– you can plan this out ahead of time.
Instead of keeping your home warm and toasty all day (keeping energy costs high) consider turning back your thermostat 7-10 degrees while you’re out running errands or at night before bed. By turning the heat down for 8 hours per day, it can save you up to 10% per year on your heating bill.
If you do decide to turn the heat down while you’re home, we recommend grabbing a blanket or a few extra layers to keep yourself warm.
Schedule Heat Pump Maintenance
We recommend having one of our trained technicians come out and inspect your furnace once during the fall before the snow falls, and again in the spring. It’s much simpler and more cost-effective to have us perform routine maintenance on your furnace than it is to completely replace it in the middle of winter.
Ellis AC & Heating
To sum things up, to have an energy-efficient furnace, it’s important to perform routine maintenance. These simple steps should keep your furnace running smoothly all year long. If you need additional support or have any questions about your furnace, contact one of our specialists at Ellis AC & Heating today. We’re happy to help take care of any of your furnace, AC, or related needs. Give us a call at (972) 544-5609.