If any of your home’s occupants is cold-natured, you may well dread the advent of fall. That’s when cooling temperatures inspire the colder folks to turn up the thermostat and make the home too warm for others. There are very sound reasons why keeping the house too warm is a bad idea. Here are some of them, along with what you can do to maintain a more reasonable indoor temperature.
Turning your thermostat up so that the heating unit is running all the time is a wasteful and inefficient use of energy. Plus, it will wear out your equipment before its time.
Experts recommend maintaining a home temperature of 68 to 72 degrees during the winter as the optimum for comfort and efficiency. For those who find those temperatures a bit too chilly, recommend that they dress more warmly. You may also have to offer space heaters or other forms of spot heating, such as a ductless mini split, to appease the cold-natured and to avoid living in a home that’s too warm.
If your house tends to be cold and drafty, look into what you can do about it. Start with air-sealing leaks around key spots such as door and window frames, baseboards, attic hatches and pipes, cables, and wires that go through an exterior wall. Use caulk, insulation, and weatherstripping. This will cut down on draftiness and cold spots.
Your home climate might be improved with a zoned system that allows individuals to control the temperature from certain zones throughout the house by closing or opening dampers. This method keeps the rest of the house from being too warm.
You can also turn the heat up during the day, when everyone is home and moving around, but dial it back a few degrees at night, when people are sleeping or if everyone goes to work or school.
Any of these methods can help individuals who require warmer temperatures to be comfortable, while not running your energy bill into the stratosphere.
For more on keeping your house from being too warm, contact
of Dayton.
