According to the United States Department of Energy, about half of the energy used in your home goes to your heating and cooling systems. Therefore, it’s important to make the right decisions about your air conditioning, ventilation, and heating systems. Ensuring that you have the correct, energy efficient systems in place can help you reduce your monthly utility costs, improve overall home comfort, and help fight against global warming.
Reducing Costs
To put it simply, the more efficient your heating and cooling systems are, the less they cost to run. Energy efficient systems do not waste energy by starting and stopping all day like more traditional heating pumps do. They are also able to only use the precise amount of energy needed to maintain the desired temperature, and instead of having one thermostat for the whole house, you can control each room individually. This allows you to not waste energy in unoccupied rooms, Features like these will cause you to quickly see a drop in your utility costs on a monthly and yearly basis.
Improve Home Comfort
Energy efficient heating and cooling systems have features that help ensure maximum comfort in your home. For example, most systems have programmable thermostats that allow you to automatically regulate the temperate throughout the day- so you can experience the ideal temperature when you sleep or get ready in the morning without having to manually adjust. An added bonus? Programmable thermostats can save you over $150 a year in utility costs. These systems have also been proven to be 40% more efficient than window air conditioning units- ensuring your house reaches the ideal temperature on those hot summer days without emptying your wallet. For those home or business owners with sensitive hearing- energy efficient models also operate at a reduced noise level.
Fight Against Global Warming
It’s important that citizens participate in the fight against global warming, and having energy efficient systems are a small way in which to do so. These systems can help reduce air pollution- and they also contribute to conserving natural resources. How? When power plants are burning fossil fuels to make electricity, the byproduct is a release of greenhouse gases. By reducing energy use at home, this will in turn reduce the emissions that contribute to global warming.
Finding Efficient Heating and Cooling Systems
If you know you want to upgrade your home to energy efficient heating and cooling systems, there are tools available to help you find out about the energy efficiency of different models.
First, there is the EnergyGuide label. Any seller of heating and cooling systems (including furnaces, boilers, or air conditioners) has to provide information on how much energy their products use, as well as a comparison to comparable models. This information can be found on the the product’s EnergyGuide label, website, brochure, or fact sheet. If you cannot find the label information, ask for it- the label is required by the Appliance Labeling rule and enforced by the Federal Trade Commission.
Second, you can look for the ENERGY STAR logo. This tells you that the product meets energy efficiency criteria established by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Heating and cooling systems have come a long way in terms of cost efficiency, home comfort, and environmental compliance. If your home or business needs an upgrade, or a brand new system, make sure you’re getting the most energy efficient model on the market.