Overlooking your home’s energy efficiency can create both structural and financial headaches. An inefficient home can affect comfort and drive up energy bills. A leaky, inefficient home can cause structural damage through water leaks and more. If you’re tired of higher-than-necessary energy bills and suffering in an uncomfortable home each winter, here are three ways to make your home more comfortable this winter.
- Air Seal: A leaky home can waste approximately 10 to 15 percent of a home’s heating dollars. Sealing air leaks around the home’s envelope and keeping conditioned air inside is one of the least expensive and most effective ways to help reduce energy loss. Sealing penetration points in the attic and around areas like doors, windows, electrical outlets, ducts and more will dramatically increase comfort.
- Add Insulation to Your Attic: Most homes are under-insulated based on current building codes. Adding a fresh layer of blown-in fiberglass after sealing attic air leaks can further reduce your energy bills and help keep your home comfortable.
- Check Your Furnace: Confirm your furnace is in good working order to uncover any problems that could arise and confirm it’s working as efficiently as possible. And remember to change your furnace filter! A clean filter can reduce dust and help your furnace run more efficiently.
- Insulate and Seal Your Crawl Space: Crawl spaces are naturally cool and damp. Because they are in direct contact with the main floor of your house, the condition within your crawl space can affect your home’s comfort. As your home breathes from ground to sky, this cool and damp air is drawn into your home’s interior through tiny penetration points around your floor. This can bring down the internal temperature of your home and drive up your heating bills. A poorly insulated basement without proper air sealing can also affect your home’s temperature, comfort and unnecessarily drive up heating bills
- Upgrade Your Light Bulbs: Take an inventory of your home’s light bulbs. You may be using inefficient bulbs that are using more energy than necessary. Upgrading to LED bulbs can reduce your energy bills — especially during winter’s shorter days and lights are on more than any other time of year.
Interested in making home energy improvements this winter? Contact us to schedule your free estimate!