ClickCease
Davis/Morgan
801-773-4836
Weber County
801-393-1265
Brigham City
435-553-4556
Salt Lake
801-292-1636

3 WAYS TO IMPROVE HOME WARMTH WITHOUT CRANKING UP THE HEAT

Newton's Law of Cooling states that a body loses heat in conjunction with the temperature of the surrounding environment to achieve equilibrium. Unfortunately, this simple principle also means that your home will need to be constantly heated during a frigid winter to stay comfortable — unless you create more of a separation between your home's interior and the outside world.

Here are three easy ways to improve the warmth of your home without cranking up the heat so that you can take advantage of this scientific principle while minimizing your power bill.

1. Use Your Curtains Wisely

Blinds and curtains can create a powerful barrier between the cold temperatures outside and the interior of your home. While most modern windows are created to reduce heat loss, their R-value is typically far less than the surrounding wall.

Fortunately, by simply closing your blinds and snapping those curtains shut, you can significantly reduce heat loss, keeping the temperatures inside your home more comfortable.

In fact, the Department of Energy explains that standard curtain varieties can reduce heat loss by as much as 10%, while insulating curtains hung close to windows and sealed with Velcro or tape can reduce heat transfer by as much as 25%, reducing your reliance on interior heating systems.

To keep your home as warm as possible, close your blinds tightly when the sun is down, and secure curtains around your windows to keep drafts to a minimum.

During the day, open your drapes and your blinds to let in as much sunlight as possible. When sunshine pours through your windows, the UV light converts to a heat-generating wavelength, passively warming the space.

2. Check for Small Air Leaks

Unfortunately, even small drafts can do a lot of damage to your monthly heating bill, especially if you have more than one area that lets cool air pour into your home. To keep your home cozy, check the entire interior and exterior envelope of your home for holes, and seal them to prevent heat transfer.

Check spaces around incoming cables, pipes, exterior dryer vents, hoses, and structural supports. If you spot holes, fill the space with spray foam insulation or small chunks of fiberglass insulation.

If you have a pet, consider replacing their doggie door with an insulated version, which is specifically designed to reduce drafts and heat loss. Most versions contain cushioned edges to reduce gaps around the opening, and multiple flaps to keep carefully heated air inside.

Air leaks can also be a problem when they exist within your HVAC ductwork. Incorrectly installed ducts can have joinery issues, allowing heated or cooled air to pool inside wall voids, crawl spaces, or unfinished basements.

In addition to making it difficult to delivery heated air to the right rooms of your home, air leaks can also make your furnace work harder than necessary to heat your home, increasing the need for repairs and system replacements.

To prevent issues, use a flashlight to inspect exposed ductwork to look for holes or joinery gaps. Seal holes with aluminum sealing tape or HVAC epoxy. If you have entire areas that are no longer connected, turn to a trained heating and cooling professional to repair the issue.

In addition to reconnecting the pipes, professionals can also check the rest of your system for possible leaks, improving the warmth of your home.

3. Rearrange Your Furniture

Sometimes when people move in to a new home, they think more about how they want the space to look rather than how they want the room to function. Unfortunately, blocking interior cold air returns can make it more difficult for your furnace to heat the air inside your home, causing issues during the winter.

Find the location of cold air returns in your home by looking for vents that aren't actively pushing out warmed air when the furnace is running. To see if they are sucking in air, hold a piece of paper over the vent cover to see if it sticks from negative pressure. Make sure these vents are completely unobstructed by furniture, coat racks, and rugs.

Furthermore, think about arranging furniture to take advantage of natural heating elements within a room. For instance, you might move your sofa to sit in front of your fireplace, making it easy to warm your toes while you relax in the afternoon.

It isn't always easy to tell why your home is colder than it should be, which is why working with professionals is so important. Here at Dick Kearsley Service Center, our experienced HVAC repair professionals can help you to identify the causes of a cooler home and offer solutions to keep your space comfortable this winter.

Whether you need a new furnace or you are nervous about your indoor air quality, we can help. Give us a call today.

CONTACT INFORMATION

520 S State, Clearfield, UT 84015

[email protected]

Hours Of Operation:

Mon-Fri: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm

Saturday: 8:00 am - 4:00 pm

Sunday: Closed

Find Us On:

PHONE NUMBERS

Davis/Morgan: 801-773-4836

Weber County: 801-393-1265

Brigham City: 435-553-4556

Salt Lake: 801-292-1636

VISIT US

© Dick Kearsley Service Center 2023