5 Common Heating Mistakes in Iowa Homes

As the temps dip here in Iowa, you’ve probably cranked your thermostat up to let the heat flow through your home. However, there’s a good chance you’ve made at least one mistake costing you money, heat, or both. The experts at Golden Rule PHC have seen it all, so we’ll lay out the most common heating mistakes in Iowa homes and how to fix them. These include:

If everything is working fine, you probably wonder why you should bother having anyone come out to look at your system. After all, if it’s working, then nothing is wrong. This is the number one mistake that most people make. Boilers, heat pumps, furnaces, and other heating systems are incredibly complex pieces of equipment. While they are generally resilient and can last you many years, they require regular maintenance and care to maximize their lifespans.

One of the biggest reasons to have a professional regularly look at your system is to limit the potential for fires, electrical shock, and other dangers. Additionally, with scheduled system checks, a heating expert can identify and repair minor issues before they become major problems, saving you money in the long run. And while we’re talking about saving money, a system check can also ensure that your system runs at peak efficiency, meaning you’re getting more heat for less money.

When winter creeps in and the cold temps hit, it’s extremely tempting to dial the thermostat way up and keep your house nice and toast. Unfortunately, doing so is probably the opposite of what you should do. Unless you live in a perfectly sealed box, your heating system is unlikely to reach the temp you set on your thermostat, though it will keep running. The result is that your home's temperature barely changes, but your power bill increases dramatically.

In the winter, try to keep your thermostat around 68 degrees. Your home will still be nice and warm, but you’ll save quite a bit on energy costs. For additional reference, the same thought applies to your AC in summer, so you should keep your thermometer at about 78 in the hotter months.

Alternatively, install a smart thermometer capable of identifying your ideal home temperature and adjusting your system to achieve that goal.

Most modern homes tend to have exhaust fans in the kitchen and bathroom to help pull odors and excess moisture out of the rooms, improving the air quality. While this is usually beneficial, leaving them running can be a major heating mistake. The exhaust fans pull all air, meaning they are sucking the heat out of your home. If you want to run your exhaust fans more often without sacrificing heat, speak to an expert about heat recovery or energy recovery ventilators. These units work similarly to a traditional exhaust fan but supply filtered air back to habitable rooms. Their heat exchangers ensure nearly 90% of heat returns to the home.

Often, people believe that they have a heating issue when, in reality, they actually have a weatherization problem. Lack of insulation, improperly sealed windows, and gaps in attics, roofs, doors, and other areas allow heat to escape your home. You can solve many of these issues with a bit of caulk, sealant, or weather strips. Even something as simple as locking your windows can help seal gaps that let the hot air out.

Sometimes, the ducts in your heating system also develop cracks and gaps that leak. It’s important to have a professional perform regular inspections of your system to ensure that aging equipment or wear and tear aren’t responsible for your heating issues.

Many people set their thermostats to an ideal temperature and then leave them there, even when not at home. Usually, this is for one of two reasons. First, they prefer to come home to a comfortably warm home after being out in the cold for a bit. Alternatively, they do it because they believe having to reheat their home uses more energy than just leaving the heater running.

However, when your home starts to cool off, it loses heat more slowly as the internal temperature gets closer to the outside temperature. Due to this, it takes more energy to reheat a home than to keep it at a high temperature.

If you would like to save a bit of money and come home to a comfortably warm house, consider installing a programmable or smart thermostat. You can set when your system should turn on or off, allowing your home to warm up shortly before you return.