At Action Plumbing, Heating, Air & Electrical, we’re proud to have saved significant sums of money for numerous homeowners on the HVAC energy costs over the years through intelligent modern heating and air services. From basic furnace maintenance and repair to a variety of air conditioning services, we’ll keep you and your family comfortable year-round – without breaking the bank on monthly utility costs.
One home type that may have some unique concerns when it comes to monthly HVAC costs: Homes with higher ceilings in heavily-occupied rooms such as kitchens or living rooms. Today’s blog will dig into the impact higher ceilings have on HVAC efficiency, plus a few tips we’d offer on how to combat any rising utility costs associated with your higher ceilings.
High Ceiling Space Concerns
As you may have guessed, the primary HVAC-related concern of rooms with higher ceilings is space. Ceilings that are significantly higher than average will add significant square footage to a given room, meaning there’s far more air that has to be replaced when the HVAC system is looking to warm or cool the area.
Naturally, this increase in heating or cooling space often requires the system to work for longer to achieve the same temperatures. Without the right precautions taken, this can lead to a significant rise in your monthly bills. However, there are some tactics you can take to mitigate this impact.
Proper Unit Sizing
First and foremost, it’s vital to work with quality HVAC professionals like ours whenever your home is in need of a new heating or cooling unit such as a furnace, boiler or air conditioner. Our experts will help you choose the proper size unit for your home, accounting for the additional space in certain rooms based on ceiling height. A unit of the proper size is vital for maintaining overall efficiency and only using the bare minimum amount of energy.
Registers
If you have any say in the original design of the home, or if you’re able to make these upgrades, one strong fixture to help with air regulation is a combination of low- and high-return air registers. These allow you to shut lower registers in summer, allowing higher ones to take away heat from the ceiling – and then in the winter, you flip this around and shut higher registers so the lower ones remove cold air.
Other Hacks
A few other basic tips we can offer:
- Fans: Utilize ceiling fans in both seasons – running counter-clockwise in summer for a cool breeze, then clockwise in winter to push heat from higher areas downward to where people are.
- Natural heat: Keep blinds open on sunny days and utilize other natural methods for improving heating or cooling.
- Windows: Strongly consider energy efficient windows to reduce temperature loss in all seasons.
For more on how to manage your HVAC costs if you have high ceilings, or to learn about any of our plumbing or HVAC services, speak to the staff at Action Plumbing, Heating, Air & Electrical today.