It’s no secret that we’re still dealing with some pretty cold temperatures this winter season, and as such our heaters are getting a good amount of use. Of course, it’s only natural that you want to ensure you are heating your home as efficiently as possible, to help ease your energy costs.
From Tacoma, WA heater maintenance to investing in a high-quality zone control system, there are a number of steps you can take to ensure this is the case. Keep reading to learn how caring for and/or upgrading your heater can help it function more efficiently, and thus help you heat your home more efficiently.
How Does Maintenance Help with Efficiency?
- Fewer Repairs: One of the biggest advantages of investing in routine maintenance for your heater is that you’ll reduce your major repair needs. When one of our professional HVAC technicians inspects your system on a regular basis, we’ll find small issues before they turn into costly emergencies. And the less your system requires repairs, the better it will perform.
- More Safety: In addition to alerting you to repair needs during maintenance, we’ll inspect it for any safety issues. Some of the issues that develop with heating systems—especially those that burn fuel—can actually threaten your health and your home. For example, if you have a furnace with a cracked heat exchanger, it can leak carbon monoxide into your home.
- Longer Lifespan: The efficiency of a heating system starts to deteriorate the day you start using it. This is just due to natural wear and tear. Moving parts begin to wear down and eventually cause your system to have to work harder to accomplish tasks. Regular heating maintenance helps slow down this process, and thus increases the efficiency and lifespan of your heater.
How Can Zoned Heating Help?
When you use a zone control system, you have the ability to shut off the heated air blown into different areas—zones—of your home so that you aren’t heating rooms that are currently unused or unoccupied. Zoning allows you total control over your home comfort, and the system is installed directly into your ductwork through a series of dampers.
The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that families can save up to 30% off their energy bills by using zoned heating. With a system like this, you’ll no longer have to waste extra energy to heat rooms that aren’t in use.
Zoned heating can even help you create more even temperatures throughout your home. If you have a two-story home, you can have one zone downstairs and one upstairs. Since heat rises, your upstairs typically heats up a lot faster than downstairs.
Zoned heating allows the dampers upstairs to automatically close once the desired temperature is met, while still running the heat downstairs, where it’s needed. A standard central furnace with no zoning does not allow for this. Thus, it’s far more efficient to zone your heating than to not.
Contact Sound Heating for more great heating efficiency tips. We take your comfort as serious as you do!