7 Money-Saving Tips for Your Heating Bill This Year

We all know Michigan winters are brutal–not only on your body but also to your heating bill.

As your local Greenville, MI, HVAC service providers, Parker-Arntz Plumbing & Heating is here to help you save money on your heating bill this year with a few tips and tricks.

Here are 7 ways you can keep your home warm this wintery season.

1. Check Your Furnace Air Filters

We can’t stress this enough. Changing your air filters will work wonders for your furnace. Think about all the things they help block out:

Pollen
Animal hair
Dirt and dust
Lint
Mold and mold spores
Bacteria
Metal fibers

Your furnace air filter works continuously to keep airborne contaminants out of your heating and cooling system. Because of this, we recommend replacing it every three months. If you’re a pet owner, you may want to consider changing it more frequently because proper airflow is vital for optimal furnace performance.

2. Take Advantage of Sealants to Trap Warm Air

As cheesy as they may seem, window and door sealers can work wonders for your heating bill.

For windows, try plastic wrappings or heavy-duty plastic window treatments designed to help during colder temperatures. These will reduce the amount of heat that escapes through cracks by 10-20%. At night, be sure to close the blinds or drapes.

If you don’t have blinds on a window, use extra blankets or heavier curtains to cover them. During the day, sunlight can help heat your house (think greenhouse effect) but at night the bitter elements will do their worst. Placing something over the windows will help with this issue.

For your doors, add draft stoppers. These will work to seal a room, keeping heat where you want it to remain. If you have a room you close the vents on during the winter (such as an unused study) be sure to have a draft stopper on this room’s door as air will leak excessively between the door crack without one.

3. Have Your Furnace Checked

When it comes to furnace maintenance, you’re going to want a professional’s eye.

We recommend scheduling your annual furnace tune-up before the winter. This takes care of major concerns and can help prevent furnace failure during the next big winter storm. During your furnace tune-up, one of our furnace maintenance technicians can also change out your air filters if that’s something you’re not comfortable doing yourself.

4. Keep Vents and Intakes Clear

If you have your couch pressed up against the wall, blocking an air vent, we recommend moving it a few feet away.

Just because your air vents are open, that doesn’t mean they’re working the way they should. Give vents clear access to a room and you and your house will benefit more from them.

Also, check your air intake vents. Hot water baseboards and electric heating systems depend on proper airflow. Make sure your home’s air intake vents aren’t covered by furniture, toy bins, or rugs. Also, check to see if anything is clogging them like pet hair, lint, or dust balls.

5. Close Your Chimney Flue

If you own a chimney and don’t have a crackling fire in the fireplace, make sure your chimney flue is closed. An open chimney flue funnels cold air down into your home, especially when the wind picks up. Your furnace will try to compensate for this, but during a winter storm, you don’t want your bill to skyrocket due to leaving a silly flue open.

6. Extra Insulation Helps

It may be a classic option you may have heard for years, but extra insulation really does work. Insulation helps keep the heat in your home and the cold out. It may sound silly to stuff your walls with that pink cotton candy-like material, but you won’t feel silly when you see your heat bill drastically drop.

A pro tip is to insulate your heating ducts. If your ducts aren’t properly insulated, you could be losing over 60% of your heat before it even reaches your rooms. The same thing goes for heating duct cracks. During the isolation process, we recommend sealing (with duct tape!) any loose edges or spots where you can feel air escaping.

7. Schedule a Furnace Replacement

There are a few signs that you need a new furnace, one being your energy bill price.

Furnaces usually last between 15-20 years with proper care, but if you notice your energy bill rising more and more, it’s a good warning sign that the time has come for a new furnace. Although a new furnace may seem pricey, it’ll end up saving you more over time.

With Parker-Arntz Plumbing & Heating, we have a couple of options depending on your needs. Anything from boilers to gas/oil furnaces we can provide, install, and service.

Want More Heating Advice?

We’re prepared at Parker-Arntz Plumbing & Heating, Inc. to provide you with the best heating and plumbing services in Greenville, Belding, and Livonia, MI. If you’d like our HVAC technicians to help you with your furnace needs, feel free to reach out and contact us online or by phone at (888) 641-3907.

This blog has been updated.