What You Should Know About Passive Heat To Keep Your Home Comfortable

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Whether you're building a new home or looking to improve your existing home's heating, one of the best places to start is with the natural heat sources around you. The sun generates a significant amount of heat, and that heat is not often used to its fullest potential by homeowners. Understanding how the sun's heat is generated and what effect it has on your home can allow you to maximize your home's layout and design to capitalize on it. Here are some tips to help you heat things up without excess wear and tear on your HVAC system.

New Construction Tips

If you are designing new home construction, consider the orientation of the house carefully. When the long walls face the north and south, it gives you more windows on those sides for sunlight and passive heat. By placing a lot of windows on the south-facing walls, you'll be able to capitalize on the natural sunlight concentration through the winter. This will give you the most passive heat from the sun's rays.

You can even enhance the benefit of those rays by installing stone or tile flooring. The natural stone will absorb heat from the sun, holding that heat throughout the day and then gradually radiating it out into the room through the evening hours after the sun has set.

Existing Structure Enhancements

Just because your home is already built doesn't mean that you can't still take advantage of whatever windows you may have on the north and south walls.. Install roller shades in your window frames. That way, you can drop the shade to create a barrier against cold temperature transfer from outside. When you use these shades on every wall but the south-facing one, it keeps the cold air out while still allowing you to get some heat from the south side.

Flooring is an easy adjustment for existing homes. Install dark tile in all of your south-facing rooms. This maximizes the heat retention of those limited hours of sunlight during the winter days. Pair those tiles with insulated curtains on the windows of the opposite side of the house to avoid the cold air filtering in when the sun goes down.

With the tips presented here, you can maximize your home's use of the natural heat. This not only reduces the demand on your home's HVAC system and the need for heater repairs, but it also saves you the costly investment in solar heating components. Talk with a local heating contractor about how to optimize your home heating system today.

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19 June 2015

Inspecting Your Air Ducts

Last summer, I began to get extremely hot in my home. My air conditioning system couldn’t adequately keep my home cool anymore. Therefore, I contacted an experienced HVAC contractor. This individual visited my home and thoroughly inspected my unit. If your air conditioner isn’t working like it once did, your air ducts may be clogged up. Thankfully, an expert HVAC contractor can determine if faulty air ducts are the cause of the hot temperatures inside your home. On this blog, you will discover how an HVAC contractor can properly inspect your air ducts. Stay cool and comfortable during the hot summer months!