5 Heating Myths You Really Need to Stop Believing
Updated: Sep. 15, 2023
We debunk some pretty common myths about what does and doesn't heat a house efficiently.
Cranking the Thermostat Heats Your Home Faster
Common sense might suggest that by turning the dial on your thermostat all the way up your home will heat up at a faster rate. But that’s not really the case.
Turning your thermostat all the way up just means that your furnace will pump higher levels of heat into your home—but it’s still going to work at the same pace as before.
Install a smart thermostat today for greater control and energy savings.
Space Heaters Are More Effective Than Your Furnace
Sometimes it can seem like your furnace just isn’t quite cutting it and a few space heaters are the perfect solution to cold spots throughout your home. While space heaters serve as a perfectly adequate temporary solution, they are nowhere near as efficient as gas, and the electricity used to run them is going to end up costing you a lot of money.
That money would be better spent repairing your heating system so it sufficiently heats your entire home without producing any cold spots. Here, find out how to fix it if your heater isn’t working.
You Save Money By Keeping Temps Consistent
Some people believe that periodically putting your thermostat on a lower setting won’t save you money because the furnace will have to burn through more fuel when you want to return the temperature to the higher setting. Not true.
Turning down your thermostat for extended periods actually can save you some money. Energy.gov recommends setting your thermostat as low as you are comfortable with during winter months and lowering it further when you’re in bed or away from home.
This both lowers your home’s environmental emissions while also saving you money on your energy bill.
Ceiling Fans Are Just for Summer
If it’s mid-December and your home is feeling a little chilly, the last thing you might think to do is turn on your ceiling fans. However, many ceiling fans have a switch on the side that changes the direction they spin from counter-clockwise to clockwise.
By spinning clockwise, the fan will pull up cold air, in turn forcing hot air down from where it has risen to and sending heat to more areas in your home.
Fireplaces Are a Great Way to Heat a Home
While the idea of spending the holiday season curled up next to a fireplace sounds like a cozy one, the cold reality is that fireplaces generally provide a pretty inefficient and costly way to heat a home.
Fireplace chimneys can be a major source of heat loss during the winter, and the quantity of firewood you’ll need to heat an entire house could cost you a pretty penny.
Originally Published: November 20, 2019
