Energy Efficiency Tips To Help You Manage And Improve The Comfort Level Of Your Home

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The desired comfort level in your home likely remains the same through each season even though the outside temperature and weather will vary significantly. Three major aspects can affect the comfort and temperature of your home's interior, which includes the efficiency of your current HVAC system, your home's structural ability to stay warm or cool, and the effects the exterior of your home and landscaping have on your home's interior. Here are some tips to help you manage these three elements and keep your home comfortable for you and your family.

Evaluate and Inspect Your Current HVAC System

Not all home HVAC systems will work in any home, as the size of your home and the output ability of your HVAC system need to match. If you have a larger home, for example, you will need to have a larger-capacity heating and cooling system to maintain your home's interior temperature. In some situations, you may need two or more heating or cooling units to keep your home at a specific comfort level.

Fortunately, you can hire a professional HVAC technician to evaluate your home's system to make sure it is adequate for maintaining the comfort of your home. There's no guarantee that your home's current HVAC system was correctly sized for your home when it was installed.

The HVAC professional can inspect your system, looking at its age to make sure it is still working well. You may need to upgrade your system to an Energy Star–rated system if your existing HVAC is old and not energy efficient. This can improve your home's comfort and reduce your energy bills. If your HVAC system is sufficient for your home, the technician can inspect and complete a tune-up of your system, including making any required repairs or fixes.

Evaluate Your Home's Interior Insulation Efficiency

Your HVAC professional can also complete an inspection of your ventilation and air duct flow to make sure all the duct work is delivering air properly to each room. Older duct work can have cracks in seams and connections that cause leaking of heating and cooling air. And ducts that flow through attic or basement spaces can lose heated and cooled air when they are not insulated. Have your ducts checked, sealed, and insulated when necessary to repair your air flow problems. Sealing and insulating your duct work can improve your home's heating and cooling efficiency as much as 20 percent.

And if you have any rooms which are too cold or hot during each season, you should also check the room's air sealing around windows and have the insulation levels evaluated. Improper insulation can cause an individual room to lose heated or cooled air.

Consider Your Home's Exterior Elements

The outside of your home and the landscaping can also contribute to your home's ability to efficiently cool and heat the interior. Planting trees around your yard that provide shade to the exterior of your home's windows, walls, and roof can help reduce your cooling costs in summer. In winter they will lose their leaves to allow the sun to provide solar heat gain to your home's interior. Vegetation that shades your outside air conditioner compressor can improve its cooling ability, and shading of paved areas can reduce the air temperature outside to also help your home's cooling costs.

When it is time to replace your roof, you may want to consider installing a solar reflective roof to help keep your roof and home interior cooler. There are many types of cool roofing materials, from metal roofs to asphalt shingles. Each are applied with a reflective coating, paint, or particles to reflect the sun's infrared rays and reduce the surface temperature of your roof. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, a cool roof can reduce the surface temperature of your roof by up to 50 degrees F as compared to a regular, non-cool roof. This results in your home's air conditioner working less to keep your home cooler inside.

To learn more, contact a company like A-1Finchum Heating.


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