So, you’ve got your house, you’ve made your home perfect, touched up all of the aesthetic problems with the interior and exterior and are finally happy with the result after coming home following a long day at the office, school, or wherever else you spend the day. Everything should be all peachy, right?
In a way, it kind of is. But there is still the problem of spending too much money on your energy bills. You need to keep warm in the winter and nice and cool in the summer, but how much more can you do to lower these energy costs in your house?
The secret is to identify where exactly this money is going. It’s all well and good throwing on a sweater instead of cranking the heat up if it’s too cold. And the same can be said about walking around in a t-shirt and shorts when the summer sun is baking you inside your own walls. Consider then, that it is not what you are doing in your house, but instead what you can change.
A lot of people do not realize the parts of their homes that can contribute to wasted energy and spending more on their utility bills. Here are some of the factors to look out for if you can’t seem to get your houses temperature just right.
HEATING, VENTILATION, AC
A lot of energy is wasted on the system you have installed throughout the home. This can include your heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems that may be eating into your finances and driving up your energy bill.
There are a lot of factors that can affect how efficient your HVAC system is. This includes filters, coils, ventilation rate, and, the one you can do nothing about most of the time, wear and tear. If you find your energy bill is too much of a detriment to your bank account, it might be time to change or update your HVAC system.
Services such as ZoningSupply.com can provide you with the sort of assistance that will ease the pain of reading that bill each month. Furthermore, these updates will make your system more energy efficient during both the hot and cold times of the year, allowing you to feel comfortable no matter what weather might hit.
DOORS AND WINDOWS
Your doors and windows could be affecting the temperature of your home, especially if you live in an older residence and haven’t updated frames since moving in. It can be easy to miss these factors out, even when going around and adding a fresh coat of paint to door frames and fixing hinges.
While you can always go ahead and purchase new windows and doors, there are cheaper solutions available that will immediately fix at least some of the problems you are facing with your windows and doors. One example is to install draught stoppers to the bottom of your door – whether it be the front door or even doors between rooms that allow heat to fly through and escape.
Another solution to consider is a door curtain, which works like your regular curtains and drapes but instead of blocking out windows, they help to insulate the heat in whatever room you are in. as for windows, moving from single glazed to double glazing will go along way towards making your warm more insulated against the cold or heat, but can be expensive, so it’s best to try other solutions beforehand.
FURNITURE
Take a look around your living room, bedroom, or dining room. While you may have obsessed over the layout upon first moving in, you would not have lived there long enough to realize the effects that such a layout has on the temperature of your home.
The location of your sofas, chairs and other furniture have the potential to block off heat emitting from radiators or even out of the way of windows, which allow your house to absorb heat and keep your house naturally warm.
Considering this, it might be a good idea to switch up the layout of your home, by moving furniture into a more energy efficient position and let the air flow better throughout your home. This is the same in any room in the house. While it may seem like a large task to move each piece of furniture the benefits may well outweigh the experience of nights shivering and huddling up like penguins.
THE HIDDEN ISSUES
A lot of the reason you are losing this heat or succumbing to too much of it is due to the areas of the home that you don’t see a lot of. Places like the roof, and lower parts of the home on the outside, particularly if you have a basement or an elevated home, can contribute to temperamental temperatures year-round.
It is essential, then, to take a look outside, climb onto the roof and get down amongst the shrubs to inspect and discover any holes that may have occurred over time due to weather-wear and other factors. Doing this will give you the opportunity to block them temporarily while you research solutions.
Typically, you will find roofing and repair companies which can assist and give advice on how to avoid such problems in the future. If you ever decide to move house, it is also good to keep in mind that many people will have been as ignorant to such an issue as you, and you will be able to avoid repeating this process by checking them out before even moving in. Furthermore, check your attic for insulation, which is essential in keeping that much-needed energy inside the house where it belongs without allowing it to escape.
DO IT NOW
Waiting too long to solve these problems will only hurt your bank balance and comfort in your own home. Furthermore, in the winter where the mornings are typically the coldest part of the day, you will find it much harder to get out of bed if you feel like you are stepping into the arctic tundra. Ensuring that your home is as warm as it can be without the need for heating will make this just a little bit easier.
Taking these steps to fix the issues in your home will go a long way to granting you more money to do what you want, and will help you afford any home repairs that might crop up during the year, as well as treating the family to a nice little vacation with all your extra cash.
