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As winter is approaching you may be worried about the rising cost of your gas bill. This reaction is to be expected, especially if you’re not sure about where the cost is coming from. When the temperature drops, it’s easy to crank up the AC or leave the heater on a little too long. In this article, you can learn the different ways your activities can cause high gas bills in your household. This way, this coming winter you can rest assured you won’t be surprised by any high gas bills.
Your Home Does Not Have Good Insulation
At this point, it isn’t the first one that comes to mind for a lot of people. However, this can be a huge contributing factor to why your gas bill is as high as it is. Home insulation is usually installed when it is being built. Insulation materials are used to help regulate the temperature in your home, this means that it helps keep your home warm in winter and cool in summer. This is a great way to ensure that you won’t have to use additional heating methods such as your AC if your home is warm enough. Having poor insulation in your household means that your other heating devices will not work as efficiently as they can, thus hiking up your bill.
Therefore, if your insulation is the problem, the first step would fix it and make sure that certain areas like your attic and roof are good. You can also reduce the air circulation in the house by shutting any doors that don’t have people in them. Other issues can be; repeatedly opening and closing the front door. This allows the cold air from the outside inside thus affecting the air circulation in the house. This happens a lot to families with children and can be avoided to prevent the loss of heat in the home.
Secondly, try to organize a yearly checkup for your home to make sure your insulation is still good. Other areas such as your window and or air ducts ‘leaking’ can be the culprits for the high gas bills so make sure it is being checked. This will help you avoid being surprised and it will save you money in the long run by spotting problems in your home before they become even bigger issues. These are some of the ways you can save on gas bills for home insulation.
Consider the different types of insulation materials that are available. The materials range from fiberglass to cellulose, mineral, wood, and foam. These are the four most popular option but they are not limited to the range of choice you have. All of them are different in their own way, but still, provide your home with good insulation depending on your choice.
Maintain and Update Your Gas Furnace
Your gas furnace is the most important thing in your home, especially in winter. A gas furnace is the central heating system available in every home. This controls a large majority of your heating including, but not limiting, your thermostat and gas burners. So, maintaining your gas furnace is important to ensure that it’s not the cause of a high gas bill.
The older Gas furnace models always have a small amount of gas running through to keep your fuel needs met. This was sufficient then when it first came out but can be highly costly now to constantly keep operating. To save money, rather invest in a newer high-efficiency electrical gas furnace.
Another way of ensuring you are getting the best for your money is keeping up with maintenance. Hiring a trustworthy team to ensure all your electronics and pipes are in good condition is important. Also be sure to compare and find the best deals, say if you were looking for the best deal for gas line maintenance in Chantilly.
Using an Old Thermostat
It’s important to remember that upgrading the technology in your home such as your thermostat can lower your gas bill. Today there are new thermostats called ‘smart thermostats’ that are said to be helpful when monitoring your AC system.
Outdated thermostats will require more maintenance work than the new high-tech smart thermostats. Therefore, it is important to consider the options you have available to you before deciding If you want to find out if smart thermostats are for you, consider the points below:
Smart thermostats have a lot of desirable qualities. Qualities such as that they can be programmed to meet the needs of your home. The homeowner has the capability of being responsible for the AC use in his or her home. This way your gas bill will never spike without you knowing why.
You can also adjust the times to start the thermostat. So, for example, if you know no one will be home at a certain time, you can plan for it to shut down during that time. therefore, you do not have your AC on for no reason.
You can also use your smart thermostat from your phone or tablet. These types of thermostats are often WIFI operated for the convenience of the homeowner. This means that you can control it no matter where you are and know that you are not wasting any energy.
Lastly, you can track all your energy use throughout the month or year. This can be done using the thermostats application. You can then use that information to break down when and how much energy you use monthly. This is a good way to be aware of all the expenses that are going to show up in your gas bill.
Final Thoughts
As the seasons change, you want to be informed about what contributes to your gas bills. When you are aware of how things work or at least how they contribute to the bigger picture. You are then able to actively make changes that will help you in the long run when it comes to saving money. As long as you remember to update your thermostat and your gas furnace while also making sure that your home has the best insulation. You can be assured that your gas bill won’t surprise you anymore.
Guest Author
Gary Pandara is a construction specialist. He has been in the industry for more than 20 years where he owned a successful company. He now spends his time writing blogs while sharing his extensive knowledge. In his free time, he enjoys listening to music and walking his dog.
