Tips for Home Comfort (And Energy Savings) This Winter

Winter is coming here, and your comfort in your home is as important as ever. But how do you keep your home warm and cozy when that icy Chicago wind rolls through? In this blog, the Chicago HVAC specialists at Aircor will give you a few tips for keeping your home perfectly toasty this winter. With the right tools and strategies, you’ll enjoy your time in your home and save money on your energy bill to boot!

Keep things insulated.

The biggest battle you’ll face during the winter isn’t just about keeping the cold air out—it’s about keeping the warm air in. If your home is full of cracks and gaps, you’ll be losing all of that comfy and cozy air, and you’ll force your HVAC unit to work harder in order to produce a suitable amount of heat. This can cause damage to your HVAC system, and it’ll spike your energy bill, too. To prevent this problem, you’ll need to seal up the cracks and keep your home properly insulated. First, use caulking solution to seal up draft-prone seams around vents and pipes. Next, adjust your doors and use door stops and seals to ensure tight fits between doors and frames (this is a common area for drafts). Finally, use thermal curtains on your windows to slow the rate at which cold air enters your home. These steps will make your home more airtight than ever before, and will ensure your HVAC system doesn’t have to work too hard to heat up your home.

Practice proper thermostat habits.

For every degree you set your thermostat over 78 degrees in the summer, you’ll save around seven percent on your energy bill—per degree. Those are huge savings! The same concept still applies in the winter as well—so instead of jacking your heater up to 85 degrees to keep things warm, try keeping your thermostat at around 68 degrees while you’re at home. We get it—68 just doesn’t sound toasty enough. But it’ll keep your home at a consistently livable temperature, and you’ll save plenty of money in the process. The closer you set your thermostat to the outdoor temperature, the less energy you’ll consume—and that could save you 15 to 20 percent per year on your bill!

Install a programmable thermostat.

While setting your thermostat at a reasonable temperature is fine and dandy while you’re home, what happens when you’re not home? For some folks, coming home to an icy cold house is fine—but for others, well, they’d rather run that thermostat all day long (and pay the price for it) so they can come home to comfortable temperatures. Fortunately, there’s a better way: using a programmable thermostat. Instead of leaving your thermostat running or icing out your entire home, you can use your smartphone or other mobile device to create a schedule for your thermostat so you can have a comfortable home and maximum energy savings. Schedule your thermostat to turn off (or to a lower temperature) right before you leave for work, and then 20 minutes before you get home at the end of the day, schedule it to turn up the heat a bit so you can walk inside and take your shoes off without your toes freezing solid. You’ll save 7-10 percent on your energy bill, and you’ll always have the comfortable home you desire!

Have your HVAC system serviced.

It doesn’t matter how perfectly insulated your home is, or how efficient your thermostat usage is—if your HVAC system hasn’t been cleaned and serviced for awhile, you’re not going to get the warm air you want, and you’ll end up paying a premium on energy. You need experienced HVAC professionals to keep your HVAC system in good shape—and that’s where Aircor can help. Our friendly HVAC technicians can prepare your heating system for winter so you can maximize your savings and stay comfortable all winter long. Get started with us today!