If you feel like you spend too much money in the winter heating your home, you may want to take a few steps to try to make your home more energy efficient. There are a lot of ways to do this, but here are some of the best methods that might help you save money this winter on your heating expenses.

Make Sure Vents Are Not Covered

One easy step to begin with is looking at the location of all your heating vents. Most vents are located on exterior walls of homes near windows, and these vents deliver warm air to your home. If any of your vents are covered, you might be wasting energy. For example, if your couch is covering a vent, all the heat coming through this vent might get trapped underneath your couch instead of getting into the room.

Moving your furniture around a little to make sure all the vents are exposed and able to heat your rooms is a great first step to take when trying to make your home more energy efficient.

Minimize Drafts

While it might be impossible to eliminate all drafts from your house, with the right steps you might be able to at least minimize the drafts. A draft occurs when outside air leaks into your house, and this can occur in many areas of a home. The best places to check first are your doors and windows. If your doors and windows are closed yet you feel some cold air coming in, you may need to seal these drafts.

You can seal drafts in several ways, and one option is by caulking around the door and window frames. Covering up your windows with thick curtains and blinds is another way to minimize drafts coming in.

If your windows are really old, you may want to consider placing heat-shrink window film over them. When you use this type of film, it is almost invisible to the eye, which is one benefit of the heat-shrink kind. The purpose of it is to stop air from coming through, and this can make a big difference with drafts.

In addition to checking windows and doors, you should also make sure you do not have any drafts coming from your fireplace, chimney, attic, and vents. If you can feel air coming in through any of these areas, you should take time to seal the drafts with caulk or something else that stops drafts. You could even hire a contractor to help you with this if you cannot find a way to control the drafts.

Perform Furnace Maintenance

One other great step to take is hiring an HVAC company to perform furnace maintenance. If you take good care of your furnace by getting it cleaned and serviced each year, it will most likely run more efficiently. During furnace maintenance, a technician will perform several steps to make sure your furnace is operating as well as possible. This will include replacing the furnace filter.

The filter in your furnace is there to pull debris out of the air, but it will reduce airflow to the furnace if it gets too dirty. When airflow to the furnace is restricted, it can cause a furnace to run harder than usual, and this will cause an increase in your energy bills. Keeping the filter clean is one of the easiest ways to help your furnace run more efficiently.

If you want to control the energy you use this winter to heat your home, contact a company that offers heating and air conditioning services. They can perform the necessary types of maintenance your furnace needs, and this could help you save a significant amount of money on your heating bills. For more information, contact companies like Apollo Heating & Air Conditioning.