Chip Away at the Cost of Home Ownership
How to chip away at the cost of home ownership
If you think you’re spending too much on bills every month (as most Canadian homeowners do), we have some easy ways to chip away at those bills.
- Be like water
Almost 20% of your total energy bill every month comes from heating your water. The less heat you waste, the more $$$ you save.
Your best bet to save is with a tankless water heater. It completely avoids wasted energy heating water in cycles through the day. It only heats the water you need the moment you need it.
Take it a step further and insulate the pipes in your basement leading to and from your water heater. This preserves warmth on your water’s journey to the faucet or shower head so you can set your faucet at a cooler temperature to stay comfortable.
- Wrap it up
How insulated is your attic? Many homes we service are short on attic insulation. Without adequate insulation, you’re making your air conditioner or furnace work harder than it should to keep you comfortable. 
A small investment in good insulation will put a tight wrap around your wallet, saving you real money every month.
- It’s 2016, right?
Even if your home heating and cooling system is only a few years old, advances in efficiency may make replacing your system a smart move.
We sell and install air conditioners with efficiency ratings up to 26 SEER as part of a system. What does 26 SEER mean? It’s shockingly efficient, that’s what. A new furnace can save you hundreds of dollars every year.
- Put your comfort on a schedule, sort of
Heating and cooling your home can account for half of your total energy bill. So if your system runs less, the savings will show themselves right away. One of the ways you can reduce use without sacrificing your perfectly comfortable air is by installing a programmable thermostat.
Programmable thermostats can adapt your heating and cooling to your life by running your furnace or air conditioner less often during the hours that nobody is home.
- Upgrade to LED’ing lights
A single light bulb may not seem like much of an energy drain. But when you think about all the rooms in your home, and all the lights in those rooms, you can see how it’s an opportunity for savings.
Replace your old lights with some modern LEDs, and put some of your interior and exterior lights on a timer to limit daily use. You can increase outdoor security by having lights that come on automatically when it’s dark, without accidentally leaving them on all day.
Also consider using motion-activated light switches for rooms that see little use. You’ll have light when you need it, but you won’t stumble on a room where the kids left the lights on.
- Shower smart
Every drop of hot water that comes out of your shower head had to be heated. The less water you use, the less you spend heating water.
Low flow shower heads are more thrifty with the water they use, but you’ll barely, if at all, be able to tell the difference (not like the early generation low flow shower heads, which really did stink).
We can help with a lot of this. To cut down the cost of home ownership, give us a call today.
