If you’re replacing your furnace or upgrading it through some sort of retrofit, you can ease the burden of cost by making sure your heating load is minimized. This refers to the amount of energy that your home requires to stay warm. When your load is lower, you can purchase a smaller furnace, which will be less expensive.

Your heating load can be determined by an HVAC expert. They can figure out precisely how much energy your home should require to be adequately heated. But, if your home is leaking energy, your load will always be higher than it needs to be. Fortunately, there are a number of things you can do to lower it.

The most thorough way to find areas that could be improved for energy efficiency’s sake is to have an energy auditor perform an energy evaluation. They will perform a number of tests that find leaks and other areas where energy is leaking out. One such test is the blower door test in which a large fan is mounted to a doorframe and turned on to suck all the air out of your home. With the use of a smoke pencil, you can then actually see where outside air is seeping in.

Some of the problematic areas will be obvious and some you can address these on your own. If your doors or windows are leaky and allowing drafts in, you can use weatherstripping to seal them up. Caulk and plastic insulation work well on windows for making sure they aren’t leaking.

Insulation in areas like your crawlspaces, attics or other colder parts of your home will also help. You can use this map to figure out exactly how much is recommended for the Grand Traverse County area.

Once you have implemented a number of these strategies, your home’s heating load should have dropped significantly. At that point, you can start to shop for a new furnace or retrofit that will meet your home’s heating needs. For more information, contact Team Bob’s Heating Cooling Plumbingtoday.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about heating and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Team Bob’s services Traverse City, Michigan and the surrounding areas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!     

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