Breathe Easier and Save More: Smart Ways to Stay Comfortable Year-Round

“Take a deep breath” – a familiar phrase to relieve stress and anxiety, and this is good advice. Everyone wants to breathe cleaner air while cutting their electricity bills. Breathing more easily and cleanly is the essential foundation for a healthy and comfortable life.  

To achieve this, we must ensure a good air quality in our home, and for that, we have to maintain everything that contributes to cleaner air. Read this article to know the smart and efficient ways to breathe easier and stay comfortable year-round, which contributes to a lower risk of diseases, while saving your money. 

Key Takeaways

• Replacing air filters will help you save on electricity bills since they are responsible for cooling and heating your house.
• The government provides homeowners with tax credits for purchasing energy-saving and energy-efficient home appliances.
• Seasonal maintenance extends the lifespan of the products and makes sure that all is up-to-date. 
• A straightforward replacement from a regular bulb with an LED (light-emitting diode) can cut the country’s electricity bill by almost $3 billion annually.

Change Your Air Filters Regularly

Changing air filters is an effective step to reduce your bills, as it is responsible for keeping your home cold during summer and hot during winter. When its filters get choked or dirty, then it gets overloaded to do the same work, increasing your electricity bills. A clean filter also prevents the entry of dirt into your home. 

To clean the air filters, remove the air filter with a screwdriver and clean it. If you have not changed the filter for a while and are experiencing ineffective air filters, then they should be changed. 

TIP: Before changing or removing the filter, make sure to turn off the power. Your safety should be your priority.

Make Sure Your HVAC is Working Efficiently

Another way to save more while breathing easier is by checking if your HVAC is working properly. It gets clogged with time and can even freeze. Layers of dust keep piling upon the filter, which leads to dust coming back into the home. Also, improper working of the coil results in overload while cooling and heating the room. 

However, they should also never be so cold that they start producing ice. In case you find this, switch off the AC, and reach out to a professional such as HVAC services in Nashville, TN.  

Upgrade to a Smart Thermostat

Switching to a smart thermostat comes with added new technologies and features, such as Wi-Fi. An upgraded thermostat will help you save energy by working efficiently. Consider the mentioned measures while purchasing a thermostat:

• Check for any possible financial incentives for homeowners; this can save you money.
• Check for tax credits, as the government offers homeowners these tax credits for investing in energy-saving and energy-efficient home appliances.  

A smart thermostat will allow you to have long-term savings while decreasing your utility bills. 

Seal Your Windows and Doors

Any possible damage or gap in the windows and doors can allow outdoor allergens and pollutants to come inside the house. Sealing them can help you maintain better air quality.  Check this by moving your hands around the doors and windows to look for any possible sneaking air.

Use weatherstripping, install door sweeps, or add a window film to get rid of this. Some people even use caulk for gaps. This is how windows and doors can be sealed easily.

Schedule Seasonal Maintenance

Adding a schedule for seasonal maintenance may seem expensive and like an extra task to be done, but in the long run, it will save you money. Maintenance can even increase the lifespan of the products and make sure that your product is up-to-date. Updating equipment is also necessary to add new energy-saving features of technology. 

Many data-driven studies have proved that seasonal maintenance can improve systems’ efficiency by 5-15%, and can effectively extend HVAC’s lifespan by 5-10 years. 

Don’t Ignore Indoor Air Quality

Ignoring indoor air quality is a bad idea, as it may allow allergens and pollutants to enter your home. The air you breathe inside can have a huge impact on your health, as an average individual spends more than 12 hours of their day inside their home. Harmful airborne particles like pollen are a major concern for people who suffer from allergies. 

To avoid any of the possible issues caused by these pollutants and bad air quality, consider using air cleaners, air filtration systems, and media filters. Media filters are very effective and are designed to be used in place of a standard air filter. 

Interesting Fact
As per the research of the EPA, outdoor air can be 2 to 5 times more polluted than indoor air. This is why ignoring indoor air is a bad idea. 

Add Insulation to Forgotten Spaces

Adding insulation means incorporating thermal material into the building’s walls, either from inside or outside, to save more electricity by giving some relief to the interior equipment used to cool and heat the home. It may include various insulation types such as blown-in, rigid foam, or batt. 

Adding insulation to forgotten spaces, such as attics, basements, and crawl spaces, can be an effective step to long-term ROI on energy bills and can reduce temperature swings. They can also be installed around pipes. 

Consider Energy-Efficient Equipment

The high-efficiency equipment contributes to a safe environment and can also help you save money.  It also helps to reduce air and water pollution from coal and gas-fired power plants, and can save a lot of money in the long term by lowering utility bills. 

A simple switch from a normal bulb to an LED (light-emitting diode) can save nearly $3 billion per year on the electricity bills, and will also reduce the carbon emissions generated by electricity production. 

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