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If you are thinking of moving house, one of the first things you should put on your list is the need for central heating installation. This is particularly true with rising energy costs.

Things to Consider With Heating

As you inspect potential homes, the central heating installation should be foremost in your mind. If the potential new home hasn’t already benefited from central heating installation, now is your chance to work out where it should go.

1. Layout – Lets look at the layout first, as this does have an influence over your energy bills. While high ceilings are beautiful architectural aspects, they can be a huge heating issue. The problem is that heat rises, so you will need more heating to heat the entire home when you have high ceilings. Always remember that high ceilings equate to high-energy bills.

A second layout issue concerns the number of stories in the residence. With a home that has many levels, considering how you intend to heat all the floors is important, especially the lower ones.   Tri-level homes often have a problem with something called the zone effect. Quite often, this means that the lower level rooms are cold and the top level rooms are warm. Unless you have a very sophisticated heating system, tri-level residences are going to drive your heating bill through the roof.

2. Control Areas – One way to reduce the central heating requirements for high ceiling and tri-level homes is a controllable central heating system. Many modern heating systems allow you to isolate particular sections of the home you wish to heat. These can be a godsend for larger homes where certain rooms are not used often. If the home you’re moving to hasn’t already had central heating installation, this is something you can consider.

3. Vents – A more mundane, but important issue, are vent locations. It has to be said that the vent layout in some homes leaves a lot to be desired.   If you find vents located under windows, you can expect the heating bills to be outrageous. In addition to this, rooms without any vents can also be problematic, as they will take longer to heat up meaning you have to have the heating turned on for longer.

If it is a new home you’re thinking of buying, the central heating installation shouldn’t pose much of a problem as all the details above should have been taken into consideration by the developers. Just be wary of older homes, as their high ceilings and generally larger rooms can make your central heating and energy bills rocket.

Tags: hvac, Cooling,

Tags: hvac, , Cooling

We know that homeowners are having to deal with rising energy prices, so it makes sense to try and reduce the central heating costs any way we can. Take a look at the 5 tips below to help you work out ways to keep costs to a minimum…so you have more money to spend on something else! Remember that there are small changes that you can make as well, which still have an effect on your overall costs.

1. Head down to the basement and reduce the setting on your hot water thermostat by about 10 degrees. Of course, use your own judgement, but you will probably find that you don’t need to go below 120 degrees with the thermostat temperature.

2. Since you’re already at your boiler adjusting the heat, it is a good idea to check that the filters are clean too. A dirty and clogged filter will force your unit to work much harder and stay on longer as it struggles to penetrate anything through the central heating system.

3. Not only do you need to follow the above tips, you also need to make sure there are no leaks with your central heating system. If you have any disconnects or leaks, your heating bills could be 25% higher than they need to be if these gaps were sealed. Don’t worry about playing around with the appliance yourself, as that’s what the central heating experts are there for – call them up and they will send an engineer round. While the engineer is at your home, ask him to check the ducts too to make sure your system is running as efficiently as possible.

4. Adjust your thermostat a few degrees lower. Believe me, this really adds up. When the bill comes through you will be glad you did this.

5. If you suspect that your thermostat isn’t the most modern on the market, make sure you speak to someone about getting a new one which is programmable.   The reason is, you can set the thermostat so the temperature setting in your house is lower at night than during the day, when you are awake. The great thing about this is that you can have a lovely warm house just before you arrive home, as the thermostat will only program heating and hot water as you want it to be. Since they are a very popular option these days, your engineer will be able to fit one of these programmable thermostats in no time at all.

Your central heating bills could be slashed in half if you follow the advice herein. You can get most of them done in just one day, but the payoff will last for as long as you live there! There has never been a  better time to start making those necessary changes to your energy bills.

Tags: Cooling, Heating,

Tags: Heating, Cooling,