Heating and Cooling
Heating and Cooling Tips
1. Set your thermostat as low as is comfortable in the winter and as high as is comfortable in the summer.
2. Use a programmable thermostat. Consider a locking cover over the thermostat to deter employees from changing temperature settings.
3. Encourage staff to wear comfortable clothing during hot weather.
4. When adjusting the thermostat by hand, remember that the room will not warm up or cool down any faster if you crank up the thermostat past the desired temperature. It's easy to forget to turn it back down, wasting energy dollars.
5. Be a fan of fans - operating an air conditioner can cost up to 25 times as much as an oscillating, box, or window fan. The fan will not change the air temperature, but you will feel cooler because of the air movement. Make sure you turn the fan off when you're not in the room.
6. Do not install the room thermostat of your central heating on a cold outer wall, next to a window, in a draughty place, or next to a heat source.
7. Clean or replace filters on furnaces once a month or as needed. Your forced-air furnace may use an electrostatic filter, which is a metal-mesh filter in a metal frame. If so, you need to clean this monthly during the heating season, following the manufacturer's instructions. If your filter is in a cardboard frame, it needs to be replaced monthly during the heating season. If your system doubles as a central air conditioning system, also clean or replace the filter monthly while the cooling system is in use.
8. Clean warm air registers, baseboard heaters, and radiators as needed. Make sure they're not blocked by furniture, carpeting or drapes.
9. Bleed trapped air from hot water radiators once or twice a season. If in doubt about how to perform this task, call a professional.
10. Place heat resistant radiator reflectors between exterior walls and the radiators.
11. Use kitchen, bath, and other ventilating fans wisely. In just 1 hour, these fans can pull out a floor's worth of warmed or cooled air. Turn fans off as soon as they have done the job.
12. During the heating season, keep the draperies and shades on your south facing windows open during the day to allow sunlight to enter your building and closed at night to reduce the chill you may feel from cold windows. During the cooling season, keep the window coverings closed during the day to prevent solar gain.
13. Close an unoccupied room that is isolated from the rest of the offices and turn down the thermostat or turn off the heating for that room or zone. However, do not turn the heating off if it adversely affects the rest of your system.
14. If your building has a crawl space, inspect it regularly to ensure that the insulation inside is dry. When insulation gets wet, its optimal effectiveness is significantly reduced. Be sure to find the source of the moisture and replace any damaged insulation.
 Click to learn more about Heat Recovery Ventilators.
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15. Install a Heat Recovery Ventilator. Rebates are available through the Energy Efficiency Incentive Program. Funding is also available for community funded and non-profit organizations through the Energy Conservation Plan. A heat recovery ventilator does four things: brings fresh air into your home, warms the air, circulates it, and gets rid of stale air. Many homes don't get enough fresh air, especially in the winter. An HRV only works in homes with few air leaks. |
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16. Install a Certified Pellet Stove. Rebates are available through the Energy Efficiency Incentive Program. Funding is also available for community funded and non-profit orginizations through the Energy Conservation Program. Space heating is the biggest energy use in your home. Wood pellets burn efficiently and cleanly. Pellet are small bits of compacted wood. Electricity is used to feed the fire automatically. Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE) measures heating appliances efficiency. Higher AFUE is more efficient. |
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17. Install a Certified Wood Stove. Rebates are available through the Energy Efficiency Incentive Program. Funding is also available for community funded and non-profit orginizations through the Energy Conservation Program. Space heating is the biggest energy use in your home. EPA certified wood stove burn cleanly and efficiently. Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE) measures heating appliances efficiency. Higher AFUE is more efficient. |
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18. Install an Energy Star Oil Furnace or Boiler. Rebates are available through the Energy Efficiency Incentive Program. Funding is also available for community funded and non-profit orginizations through the Energy Conservation Program. Space heating is the biggest energy use in your home. Energy Star = energy efficient products. Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE) measures heating appliances efficiency. Higher AFUE is more efficient. |
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19. Install an Energy Star Gas Furnace or Boiler. Rebates are available through the Energy Efficiency Incentive Program. Funding is also available for community funded and non-profit orginizations through the Energy Conservation Program. Space heating is the biggest energy use in your home. Energy Star = energy efficient products. Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE) measures heating appliances efficiency. Higher AFUE is more efficient. |
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Passive Solar Heat
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Build homes and other buildings with south facing windows. Sunlight comes through the windows and heats the building. Use a local, renewable energy - sunlight. Heating bills can be reduced by 20%.
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Solar Air Heating
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Put up a Solar-Wall on the south side of a building. Use a local, renewable energy - sunlight. These systems are easy to operate and maintain.
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Water Heating Tips
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1. Repair leaky faucets. A leaky faucet wastes gallons of water in a short period.
2. Insulate your electric hot water storage tank and pipes, but be careful not to cover the thermostat. Wrap your hot water tank in an insulating blanket if it feels warm to the touch. 3. Install aerating low-flow faucets and showerheads. 4. Lower the thermostat on your water heater. Water heaters sometimes come from the factory with high temperature settings, but a setting of 46 degrees celsius (115 degrees fahrenheit) provides comfortable hot water for most uses.
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5. Buy a new energy efficient water heater. Rebates are available through the Energy Efficiency Incentive Program. Funding is also available for community funded and non-profit orginizations through the Energy Conservation Program. 6. Although most water heaters last 10 to 15 years, it's best to start shopping for a new one if yours is more than 7 years old. Doing some research before your water heater fails will enable you to select one that most appropriately meets your needs. 7. If you are going on vacation turn down your water heater's thermostat to the lowest possible setting. 8. Drain a quart of water from your water tank every 3 months to remove sediment that impedes heat transfer and lowers the efficiency of your heater. The type of water tank you have determines the steps to take, so follow the manufacturer's advice. 9. Take more showers than baths. Bathing uses the most hot water in the average household. You use 15-25 gallons of hot water for a bath, but less than 10 gallons during a 5-minute shower. 10. Install a drain water waste heat recovery system. |
Solar Water Heating
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Put up south facing solar collectors where they will get lots of sunlight. The sun heats the waters as it flows through the collectors. The heated waters goes to your hot water tank. Funding is available through the Alternative Energy Technologies Program.
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