Ever wonder why you feel like you are never home and cannot believe the amount of oil you have gone through even though the thermostat may have been turned down?
An empty house set at 55 degrees for an lengthy time will lose more heat than an occupied house set at 65 degrees.
Especially if you go somewhere warm for vacation in the winter months for a week or two, here are some things to consider:
Today, almost every room in a house is filled with electronic devices including, TV’s, personal computers, stereos and what-have-you. All of these devices produce heat when they are in use. However, when you are not home and these devices are off no heat is being released.
In addition to these devices, lights, cooking, showers, drying clothes, and even humans give off heat, which help to raise and maintain room temperatures. This actually requires your furnace to work less, and consequently less fuel will be used.
An average human will give off 116 watts per hour of heat a day. Thus, a household of four is similar to having eight 60-watt incandescent light bulbs on 24 hours a day. That is a lot of heat being emitted!
So without all of your electronics, lights and other things contributing to heating your house your furnace will actually work harder the colder it is outside.
In this case, the best things to do to make your home energy efficient during the colder months is to make sure that your house is well-insulated with items such as double pane windows, and to make sure that you have your furnace tuned annually so that it can continue to be efficient.
