Tips to Save on Winter Heating Costs
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by: ksanjitha
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Word Count: 514
Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 Time: 12:00 AM
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The average fuel cost for heating homes this winter is expected to jump significantly high over last season. Consumers are already worrying about the cost of residential heating oil, which is projected to rise about 25% nationwide from last year. Some of them don't know how they're going to be able to pay for it. Here is some advice to help soften the impact on your budget.
First of all, arrange a meeting with your energy supplier to discuss options for participating in a budget plan. This will enable you to streamline your monthly payments. You also need to run a home energy audit before the onset of winter to ensure that your furnace and appliances are operating at their optimum efficiency. Also, weatherize your home by installing proper insulation both in your house and around your hot water heater.
Caulking and weather-stripping windows and doors will help to keep out cold air to help save energy, too. A programmable thermostat is useful to reduce temperature settings, especially when you're not at home. If you have an old or ineffective boiler, replacing it with a new one is worthwhile, because the money thus saved on energy will soon add up to cover the cost of the investment. Similarly, a new energy efficient air conditioner can cut one-third of the electricity bill when compared to an older model.
If you plan to buy a new home, it pays to find out if its energy consumption. This can be found out by checking the copies of the owner's water and power bills over the past year. Insulation needs to be thick enough to seal against the bad weather. You can seek the help of an inspector to verify the effectiveness of the insulation on basic parameters such as its resistance to transferring heat. A proper rating can save energy cost up to 40% and ensures that your air-conditioning or heating system need not work overtime to make you comfortable
It is possible to measure the efficiency of an air conditioning unit by comparing its age to seasonal energy efficient ration. Also, plug any leak in ductwork to make the air conditioner more efficient. A southern facing home will get more sunlight and therefore heat in winter saving on energy cost through the windows. Black roof works as a heat magnet for your house, heating up your attic and therefore your entire house. Similarly, dark paint on the outside of the home is helpful to absorb heat.
In cold climates, it is better to have homes with vinyl-framed double or triple paned windows. Heat and cold can easily pass through if the house has single paned aluminum windows. These single-pane windows will be more efficient if they have solar or Low-E film on the outside. These extra layers of protection will be able to contain some of the energy loss with the right window treatments, such as honeycomb blinds that trap heat.
Finally explore the market to choose the most suitable and energy efficient gadget from a large number of models to make you winter as comfortable as possible.
About the Author
Anjitha is a financial adviser and well known for his finance related articles . You can find more financial articles written by the author by visiting the following link .
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