When the cold winter weather sets in, being able to come home to a nice, cozy home makes all the difference in the world. If you're like most homeowners, you rely on a furnace to keep your home warm and safe during the winter season. Below, we’ll share five of our best tips for ensuring that your furnace doesn't overwork this winter.

1. Seal and Properly Insulate

One of the biggest things that will overwork your furnace is air drafts in your home. Anytime cold outdoor air can penetrate your home, it decreases your home’s temperature. This causes your heating system to kick on to compensate for the decrease in temperature. As a homeowner, one of the best things you can do to get your furnace ready for a successful season is to seal any air leaks. Air leaks tend to develop on the exterior walls of your home. You will find them around door frames, window frames, light switches, and electrical outlets. You can run your hand around these locations to see if you notice a temperature difference. If you do, there's an obvious air leak that needs to be sealed. You can use caulking, weather stripping, spray foam, or another similar product to seal up the location. Insulation also provides a necessary barrier between the temperature inside and outside of your home. The higher the thermal resistance or R-value the insulation has, the more protection it offers. It can be helpful to check the existing R-value of your insulation to determine if it meets or exceeds the building code requirement for your area. If your insulation's R-value is below the standard, consider adding more insulation until you meet or exceed that recommended value.

2. Be Mindful of Natural Heat and Humidity

One of the simplest things you can do to increase the temperature in your home without turning on your furnace is to let in natural sunlight. During the daytime hours, you can open your blinds or curtains. This allows direct sunlight to penetrate your rooms. You may even want to consider using thicker insulated curtains to shut out the nighttime cold to help maintain your indoor heat. Humidity also plays a key role in your comfort during the winter months. If your home has very low humidity, heat won't stay in the air for very long. This requires your furnace to constantly run to make your home feel comfortable for your family. A great hack to increase your comfort and reduce the runtime of your furnace is to install a whole-home dehumidification system. By introducing more humidity into the air to an ideal range of between 30 and 50%, heat will linger for longer.

3. Maintain Proper Airflow

For your furnace to work efficiently, you need to maintain proper airflow throughout all your ducting. A great way to start is by checking all the supply and return vents in your rooms. Make sure that the vents are in a fully open position and that no obstructions are blocking their airflow. Things like plants or furniture can sometimes be pushed in the way and obstruct the airflow in or out of the vent. It's also a good idea to routinely check the HVAC air filter inside your return ducting. We recommend checking it at least once a month. You can do this by holding it up to a light and trying to look through the filter. If you can't see through the filter, it's dirty and needs to be replaced with a new one. You never want to continue to have a dirty air filter in your HVAC system, as it will decrease the performance of your furnace.

4. Use Smart Thermostats and Consider Zoning

One essential tool to keep your energy bills in check and prevent your furnace from overworking is a smart thermostat. This allows you to program in your temperature settings to maximize your comfort while reducing energy bills. Consider turning down the temperature in the evening between seven and 10 degrees. This can help you sleep better at night and even reduce your wintertime heating bills by up to 10%. If possible, consider installing different zones in your home. For example, if you have a two-story home, you may notice that your upstairs is always hotter than your downstairs. To heat your downstairs, your furnace kicks on and sends hot air to both upstairs and downstairs. This is essentially wasting all that heat upstairs that could have been delivered solely downstairs. Installing two zones for a two-story home, one zone upstairs and one zone downstairs, can be highly beneficial. Anytime the downstairs feels too cold, you can turn on your heater to warm the downstairs and leave the upstairs untouched. This will optimize system efficiency and enhance your overall home comfort throughout the winter months.

5. Add Comforting Touches to Your Home

A simple way to rely less on your heating system is to add helpful comfort touches throughout your home. These are things that help you become cozier without needing to rely solely on your furnace to produce more heat. Adding extra blankets to your living room allows you to warm yourself without having to adjust your thermostat. Consider adding area rugs to plain vinyl, tile, or wood floors that would otherwise remain cold during the winter. Also, consider rearranging furniture in your living room or bedroom to optimize the hot air from your supply vents. If you have ceiling fans in your home, make sure they're running in a clockwise direction. This will force the hot air stuck at the top of your rooms to be pushed outward and back down to the floor. This hot air recirculation will minimize your need to adjust your thermostat.

Bonus Insights

Another bonus insight is to pay attention to the age of your furnace. Furnaces that burn natural gas, propane, or heating oil to create heat typically last about 20 years. Those that use electricity can last up to 30 years. If your furnace is more than 20 years old, it will naturally become less efficient. You may want to consider upgrading to better capitalize on energy-efficient operation.

A Note on Heater Maintenance

One of the best ways to start your furnace off on the right path for winter is to get professional maintenance service. During this service, our technicians will inspect, lubricate, clean, and test all the internal components of your furnace system. This will allow us to catch any potential problem so that we can repair it before you need to rely on your system every day. Professional maintenance will ensure your system operates efficiently without overworking during the colder days. In addition, professional tune-ups are typically necessary to maintain warranty coverage on your furnace.

Expert Heating Maintenance Services

One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning® offers expert heating maintenance services in Tom's River, NJ. We also offer helpful HVAC repair, installation, and replacement services for all our valued clients. Call our office today to book your next service consultation.