5 Easy Ways to Save Energy this Fall

Fall is the favorite season of the year for many people in Salt Lake City. After all, with so many fun activities on the calendar, there’s a lot to love. Another great perk of fall is that it’s a great time of year to save energy on your utility bills.

At All Hours Plumbing, Drain Cleaning, Heating & Cooling, we want to help you celebrate this season in every way possible. This is why we want to offer some basic energy-saving tips for your home!

1. Open the Windows in Your Home

With perfect temperatures accompanying many fall days, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to open your windows and enjoy some free air conditioning. As long as there’s not excess pollution in the air, you can often keep your windows open all day long, allowing you to run your HVAC system minimally, if at all. You may even keep your windows open at night so you can enjoy the beautiful sounds of nature while benefiting from cool fall breezes to lull you right to sleep.

If there are areas in your home that don’t have windows, you can still take advantage of comfortable outside temperatures by running your HVAC system on “vent” mode. This mode runs the blower fan without using the air conditioner or furnace. You’ll get plenty of air circulation throughout your home while using much less energy.

2. Start Using Your Fireplace

In autumn, you get to enjoy crisp evenings that fade away into cool fall nights. Of course, for some members of your family, these evenings may get a little on the cold side, especially if you aren’t running your furnace yet.

To help knock off the chill without heating your entire home, it’s a great idea to start using your fireplace. Whether you have a gas or wood-burning fireplace, you can expect great localized heating. Of course, fireplaces also create an amazing ambiance for your home. While it’s not a solution for every room, a fireplace will keep your family comfortable until they head to bed and allow their blankets to keep them warm instead.

Before using your fireplace, it’s a good idea to have an HVAC technician inspect the system to ensure the chimney or flue is clean and that it’s otherwise safe to operate. You’ll also need to observe any local air quality requirements or burn bans to help protect the environment.

3. Seal Your Home

On cold fall mornings, it’s usually best that your home stays closed-up until the sun can shine long enough to heat the air. Aside from keeping your doors and windows closed, it’s important that your home is properly sealed to prevent any drafts from entering your home.

Starting at your home’s foundation, take time to check for cracks on the inside and outside. When you find a crack, it’s important to seal it thoroughly using the proper material. For concrete and mortar, you can use a mortar repair compound to help provide strength and air sealing. If you find cracks around windows or doors, we recommend that you utilize caulk to create a weathertight seal that will prevent air leaks in both directions.

Another way to find hard-to-see cracks is to have a professional perform a home energy audit. This process involves using a high-capacity fan to draw air out of your home to find places where outside air comes in to replace the air that’s leaving. If you have unusually high utility bills, this is a great way to find out what’s causing the problem.

4. Manage Your Thermostat Properly

Although fall’s comfortable temperatures typically lead to less usage of your HVAC system, the times when you do need to use your system can cause higher energy usage due to the widely varying temperatures. Therefore, if you want to save energy during this season, it’s important to employ smart thermostat management from the moment you notice the weather begins to change.

When it comes to your furnace, we recommend a setting of 68 degrees or lower. For most fall days, this setting will be low enough to prevent your furnace from kicking on at all. Plus, this setting allows you to begin to ease into having a cooler home, which will prepare you well for the upcoming winter.

As far as your air conditioner, it’s recommended that you run it as little as possible once the “fever” of summer finally breaks. This is because the cool temperatures of fall will typically only require you to run your air conditioner in short bursts. While these short bursts can improve the comfort of your home, they can cause excess wear and tear on your system, potentially requiring attention from an HVAC repair technician.

5. Add Some Insulation

If your home is lacking insulation, fall is the season when you’ll really start to notice the need. Since heat rises, the heat from your home will quickly dissipate through your attic unless there is insulation present to slow this process down. Although a lack of insulation likely won’t make your home uncomfortable in the fall, this change in temperatures should serve as a wake-up call to ensure that you address your home’s lack of insulation before it gets too cold outside.

Even though adding insulation can technically be done yourself, we at All Hours Plumbing, Drain Cleaning, Heating & Cooling recommend having a professional do the job. This is largely because attics, where the bulk of insulation is installed, can be quite dangerous for individuals who aren’t used to navigating in dark, stuffy places. Plus, proper insulation installation can make a big difference in the overall energy savings that you’ll experience as a result of the project.

When it comes to attic insulation, you have two main options: blown-in and spray foam. Blown-in insulation is the fluffy pink stuff that most people associate with the word “insulation.” This type of insulation essentially creates a blanket to keep the occupied portion of your home warm. Spray foam insulation, on the other hand, creates a separate insulated space in your attic, providing greater energy-efficiency and the ability to use your attic as storage space.

Trust Us When the Weather Changes in Utah

As the weather changes in Salt Lake City and Heber City, we at All Hours Plumbing, Drain Cleaning, Heating & Cooling want to be your trusted source for home comfort solutions. Whether it’s HVAC, drain cleaning, water heating, or fireplace services, we can take care of it all. Backed by the experience of almost a decade in business and the assurance of awards won from Angie’s List and HomeAdvisor, you can trust us when you need help making your home more comfortable this fall. To find out more, contact us at All Hours Plumbing, Drain Cleaning, Heating & Cooling today. We look forward to serving your indoor home comfort needs in the Salt Lake City area.