Thread: Any HVAC experts? - Family Woodworking

You might take a look at other areas, such as insulation and window replacements, even window tinting for that matter also. Nothing against the high-effiency appliances, but keeping the cold/warm in/out is a big factor in how much they have to run.

Our first house was one that was built in the 20's and had absolutely no insulation in the walls and single pane windows through out. The new furnace and a/c ran a lot until we got all the walls insulated, windows caulk (mostly shut, left some key ones openable), and holes blocked off. But even on the newer homes, the blow-in insulation in an attic typically settles over time and gets more compacted or kicked around when running new electrical and such. I'm needing to add some in my current house now as it's only got batts and have leaks I can feel in the winter, the blow-in usually seals these up places the batts miss.

You can do a pretty simple audit yourself using a $12 infrared temperature device from HF (http://www.harborfreight.com/non-con...ter-93983.html). I used one to go around on a cold/warm day to see where I had leaky windows voids in the insulation and such to see where I could do some pretty inexpensive improvements.

If you've got an attic fan, be sure you've got it boxed in and insulated as well when not in use during the winter. I had one rental house that didn't and cut almost $100 per month in heating out just by closing doing that.

My last house had a wall of floor to ceiling windows. During the summer, our living room became a sauna during the daytime with the sunlight shining in. Not to mention the thermostat was in that same room, really through off the balance of the house with the AC running all the time. We had a company come out and put some reflective tint on the inside, was only about $250, but man what a difference.

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