How to Keep Your Home’s Heating Bills Low This Winter

January 16, 2020

When the temperatures get frigid, residents in Wake Forest, North Carolina, have to prepare themselves for winter heating bills. Here are a few tips that can help save you money during the cold weather months.

Changing Air Filters Regularly

It’s easy to forget to keep clean filters in your HVAC unit, but this task is especially important as winter continues and everyone needs to bundle up. When air flows smoothly through the filters, your rooms stay warmer with less energy used. The equipment in your home doesn’t have to work as hard, reducing wear and tear. Changing filters every three months is a good target, but you may need to replace them more often if they get clogged more quickly. As an added benefit, keeping the filters cleaner means better indoor air quality.

Scheduling Regular Preventive Maintenance

Just as an annual checkup with your doctor helps keep you healthy, preventive maintenance once a year by an HVAC professional can help keep your HVAC system in top shape. A thorough inspection includes lubrication, removing debris, and looking for small problems that can be corrected before they become serious ones. What you spend on routine maintenance is offset by savings on your heating bill and reduced repair costs.

Setting the Thermostat Properly

The Department of Energy estimates that you can save as much as three percent on your utilities for every degree you lower the thermostat. Keeping it at 68 degrees during the active, waking hours and at 55 degrees overnight is ideal for balancing cost savings and comfort. If you’ll be away from home for an extended period, such as during the workday or overnight, turn the temperature back by 10 to 15 degrees can save you about 10 percent. The advent of programmable thermostats gives you the ability to put temperature control on autopilot.

Get a head start on winter by having your HVAC system evaluated before the cold weather arrives. Call Mitchell Heating & Cooling at 919-948-3263 to schedule a service visit today.

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