Winterize Your Home to Lower Your Heating Bill

Albuquerque winters are known for being mild. It’s one of the reasons why we love it here! Still, our nights, and even our days, get cold over the winter. Homes and businesses are definitely running their furnaces throughout the fall, winter, and spring. Starting in October and all the way through April, lows overnight are in the 40s or below. 

So if your furnace is working to keep your home warm, wouldn’t you want to do everything you could to help it run optimally? Those heating bills can get daunting over the winter. Save on your heating bill and make your home more comfortable with these Albuquerque home winterization tips.

Put Weather Stripping on Exterior Doors

Adding weather stripping to your exterior doors will help your home stay warmer by reducing drafts. Likely, your exterior doors already have weather stripping, but it can get worn down and damaged over time. 

So if you noticed that your weather stripping is not looking its best, it is time to replace it. Check out this helpful YouTube video to learn how to remove old weather stripping and replace it with new weather stripping. One pro tip is to use the old stripping to measure how long the new stripping needs to be.

Caulk Around Your Windows

If you notice you have drafty windows, purchase some interior/exterior caulk and reapply caulk to the sill of the interior and the exterior of the window. Sometimes, this is overlooked while building. Or, perhaps a homeowner did a DIY window replacement and they missed the step then. 

Caulk can also experience wear and tear, which could be the reason for your draft. Either way, a new caulk application should help seal any gaps and eliminate drafts. Check out this YouTube video if you need some more instructions on how to apply caulk to windows.

Replace Your Furnace Filter

Now that your furnace is running, it’s a great time to replace your furnace filter. It’s recommended that you change your filter every three months, or perhaps more if you have pets that shed a lot or live in a dusty environment like we do here in Albuquerque. When air filters get dirty, the air has to work harder to get through them. Dirty filters sometimes cause your furnace to overheat and cycle on and off without heating your home. Replacing your filter regularly will prevent this and help your furnace run optimally.

Here at Bosque Heating, Cooling & Plumbing, we always recommend clients consider an electrostatic filter. These are more expensive than the paper filters you buy at the hardware store, but they last much longer because you can clean them out instead of replacing them. And they remove so many more impurities from the air—down to .3 microns.

Electrostatic filters are superior at blocking pollen, pet dander, dust, dirt, smoke, and hair. So especially if you have people in your home with sensitive lungs or are immunocompromised, an electrostatic filter can not only improve the efficiency of your furnace but also improve your quality of life.

Swap Out Window Coverings

If you lose a lot of heat through your windows, another thing you can do to winterize your home is change out lightweight curtains for heavier, thermal curtains. Windows that get direct sunlight can let heat in. But you can leave the curtains drawn on windows that stay in the shade all day, especially if you don’t spend much time in that room.

And good news for the light sleepers out there—thermal curtains are often also blackout curtains, so switching out the curtains in your bedroom might help you get a better night’s sleep too. Check out this list of the best thermal curtains if you want to do some comparison shopping.

Avoid Burst Pipes By Protecting Your Pipes

While we wanted to focus this blog mainly on tips that would help your furnace run more efficiently, since we are also a plumbing company, we had to bring up protecting your pipes. Unfortunately, we do see homes that have pipes burst here in Albuquerque, so it’s important to be aware of which pipes in your home are vulnerable. 

Make sure to insulate pipes in your attic if you have one or in the crawl space. Make sure to disconnect your hose. And seal off any cracks in your home where pipes go from the interior to the exterior.

And, if you’re planning to be out of town during an especially cold spell, make sure you leave your home temperature at a minimum of 55 degrees, leave the cupboard open underneath sinks, and even consider letting the water drip slightly on the sinks to keep water moving through the pipes.

Get $79 Off Furnace Repair or 10% Off Furnace Replacement

As you winterize your house, if you notice your furnace isn’t performing like it should, give us a call at Bosque Heating, Cooling & Plumbing at (505)444-7200. We’re offering $79 off any furnace repair services or 10% off furnace replacement. 

And make sure you do what you can from this list of winterization tips for Albuquerque homes as temperatures start to drop in order to keep your home comfortable and save money on your heating bills.

October 26

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Albuquerque HVAC, Bosque Heating, bosque Heating and cooling, bosque hvac, furnace, furnace installation, furnace repair, heating, heating maintenance, heating repair, hvac, winter, Winterize


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