Most Expensive Winter Yet? Save Money with Sustainable Home Heating
With shorter days and dropping temperatures, all of us in Beverly are getting our homes ready for the coming winter. Many of us were dreading the heating bills even before the EIA released a study on home heating costs predicting a steep increase this winter of approximately 30% for natural gas and over 40% for oil.
U.S. Energy Information Administration
Sustainable heating systems and simple energy efficiency practices can save you considerable money, conserve natural resources, and contribute to efforts to fight climate change.
Improve Your Envelope
The main goal of most home energy efficiency tactics is to decrease the amount of air entering or leaving (improving its “building envelope”). This will make any heating system you have work harder for you, including old and wonky ones, and save you from spending money on heated air that escapes to the outside instead of warming you up.
Stop air gaps and increase the insulation value of your walls and roof: add home insulation, use door stoppers or thermal curtains, repair old windows, and more. Check out Green Actions: Heating for more tips.
Schedule a no-cost energy audit to have professionals assess your building envelope and provide you with steeply-discounted options to improve it (for instance, you might be eligible to for free blown-in insulation).
If this dog wearing that blanket doesn’t make you want to put on another sweater, we don’t know what will.
Heat Smarter
Insulate: Simple actions can be powerful. Don’t forget about the basics, like insulating yourself with layers. Keeping your home a few degrees cooler may mean you need a heavier sweater, but the planet (and your National Grid bill) will thank you.
Turn on your fan: If you have ceiling fans, set them to spin clockwise to pull lighter, warmer air down from the ceiling so that it circulates where you can feel it.
Control your temperature:
Standard inexpensive programmable thermostats, available at local hardware stores, are a great way to save energy. Set the temperature low for times when you’re not active in the home yet still wake up or walk into a comfortable environment based on your routine.
Smart thermostats (WiFi connected, app-controlled) provide even more customization and efficiency. Mass Save offers trusted brands and makes it easy to access all the applicable government rebates and discounts which are meant to make it more affordable to purchase energy-saving appliances.
Upgrade Your Heating System
Yeah, this is a big one. Upgrading to a more sustainable heating system is an investment. But you’ll see monthly savings on your utility bills immediately, and over time a more efficient system more than pays for itself.
Like your refrigerator, heat pumps use electricity to transfer heat from a cool space to a warm space, making the cool space cooler and the warm space warmer. ... Because they transfer heat rather than generate heat, heat pumps can efficiently provide comfortable temperatures for your home. -Energy.gov
Air- or ground-source heat pumps (which you might know as minisplits) are the undisputed leader in efficiency and low environmental impact, plus they also provide quiet, efficient cooling in the summer.
There are state and federal incentives to help offset the cost of upgrading to a more sustainable home heating system.
Ask a Green Beverly coach for practical advice about a more efficient heating system for your Beverly home or business.
CONTRIBUTORS
Margaret Collins
Anna Principato
