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Heating and cooling your home uses more energy and drains
more energy dollars than any other system in your home.
Typically, 44% of your utility bill goes for heating and
cooling. What's more, heating and cooling systems in the
United States together emit over a half billion tons of
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, adding to
global warming. They also generate about 24% of the nation's
sulfur dioxide and 12% of the nitrogen oxides, the chief
ingredients in acid rain.
No matter what kind of heating, ventilation, and
air-conditioning system you have in your house, you can save
money and increase comfort by properly maintaining and
upgrading your equipment. But remember, an energy-efficient
furnace alone will not have as great an impact on your energy
bills as using the whole-house approach. By combining proper
equipment maintenance and upgrades with appropriate insulation,
weatherization, and thermostat settings, you can cut your
energy bills and your pollution output in half.
Heating and Cooling Tips
- Set your thermostat as low as is comfortable in the
winter and as high as is comfortable in the summer.
- Clean or replace filters on furnaces once a month
or as needed.
- Clean warm-air registers, baseboard heaters, and
radiators as needed; make sure they're not blocked by
furniture, carpeting, or drapes.
- Bleed trapped air from hot-water radiators once or
twice a season; if in doubt about how to perform this
task, call a professional.
- Place heat-resistant radiator reflectors between
exterior walls and the radiators.
- Use kitchen, bath, and other ventilating fans wisely;
in just 1 hour, these fans can pull out a houseful of
warmed or cooled air. Turn fans off as soon as they
have done the job.
- During the heating season, keep the draperies and
shades on your south-facing windows open during the
day to allow sunlight to enter your home and closed at
night to reduce the chill you may feel from cold
windows. During the cooling season, keep the window
coverings closed during the day to prevent solar gain.
- Close an unoccupied room that is isolated from the
rest of the house, such as in a corner, and turn down
the thermostat or turn off the heating for that room
or zone. However, do not turn the heating off if it
adversely affects the rest of your system. For example,
if you heat your house with a
heat pump, do not close
the vents-closing the vents could harm the heat pump.
- Select energy-efficient equipment when you buy new
heating and cooling equipment. Your contractor should
be able to give you energy fact sheets for different
types, models, and designs to help you compare energy
usage. Look for high Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency
(AFUE) ratings and the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio
(SEER). The national minimums are 78% AFUE and 10
SEER.
- Look for the ENERGY
STARŪ and
EnergyGuide labels. ENERGY STARŪ is a program of the
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) designed to help consumers
identify energy-efficient appliances and products.
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