Friday, February 26, 2010

Three Ways Your Home Loses Heat and How to Stop It

Saving money on your heating bills

Most people understand the notion that heat escaping from your home means your heater has to work much harder, and this results in larger heating bills. As a consequence, most prudent people will change their furnace filter or have their boiler serviced, will apply some weather stripping to doors and windows, and take other similar precautions before winter really gets started. However, many people completely overlook the three biggest ways their homes lose heat and completely fail to take any measures to prevent this. Recognizing these three ways that heat escapes your home can literally save you a trip to your local payday loan store and hundreds of dol! lars once it gets cold enough to keep your heater on constantly. Best of all, most of these remedies are fairly simple and inexpensive.

Folding attic stairs

Most attics are accessible by a thin plywood door that has a folding ladder attached to its inside; you pull down the door and the ladder unfolds to the floor allowing you to climb up into the attic. This attic door amounts to an enormous hole in your ceiling, and since heat rises, it can come as no surprise that this is a major escape point for heat during the winter. As the ladder is attached directly to the plywood door, there is usually little, if any, insulation. As most attics are ventilated from outside the house, this means there is little more than a piece of plywood between the inside of your home and the outdoors. Further, it is very difficult to add insulation to these doors while keeping the ability to use the door and the ladder to access the attic. So what can be done? Luckily, many people have come to recognize this problem and you can now buy attic stair covers at most large home improvement stores. Depending on the size ! of your attic entrance, these covers usually cost between $50.00 and $150.00, however you are likely to save at least that much on your heating bill in the first season. ... click here to read the rest of the article titled "Three Ways Your Home Loses Heat and How to Stop It"



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