Heating & Cooling Tips
From the Department of Energy Web Site:
- Set your home thermostat as low as comfortable (68 F is suggested) when the house is occupied.
- Set back the thermostat by about 8 degrees at night or when the house is unoccupied during the day.
- Set back the thermostat to 50 to 55 F when the house is unoccupied for over 24 hours.
- Install a programmable thermostat to automatically provide the setbacks mentioned above.
- Close the fireplace damper – except during fireplace use.
- Reduce heat to unused rooms in the house – close doors and heat registers too.
- Close curtains and shades at night, and open them on sunny winter days.
- Replace furnace filters once a month during the heating season.
- Remove any obstructions and clean heating registers regularly.
- Have certified maintenance personnel service and check your furnace regularly.
- Seal all joints in sheet metal ducts in a forced air furnace with mastic or appropriate tape; insulate ducts passing through unheated spaces.
- Minimize the use of kitchen, bath, and other ventilating fans or install a timer switch on them.
- Install insulating gaskets behind electrical outlets and switch plates on exterior walls.
- Caulk and weather-strip doors and windows.
- Caulk and seal leaks where plumbing, ducting, or electrical wiring penetrates through exterior walls, floors, and ceilings.
- Use an inexpensive door sweep to reduce air leakage under exterior doors.
- Seal small holes around water pipes and stuff insulation into larger holes around plumbing fixtures.
- Use foam gaskets that fit behind cover plates to reduce heat loss around light switches and electrical outlets.
- Upgrade ceiling insulation to R-38 (higher R values mean greater insulation levels and thus more energy savings).
- Insulate exterior heated basement walls to at least R-11.
- Insulate floors over unheated areas to R-19.
- Install storm windows over single pane windows.
- Replace aging furnace, when needed, with an energy efficient ENERGY STAR model.
- Replace single pane windows with energy efficient double pane windows mounted in non-conducting window frames.