6 Tips for Holiday Comfort

The holiday season is upon us in Palm Beach, Florida. Christmas lights are already coming out, stores smell like pine, and you’re scheduling time off work to be with friends and family. The holiday season is for relaxing, spending time with loved ones, and finishing the year off strong. It’s hard to relax, though, when you can never get comfortable in your own home. These six simple tips will help you build the energy-efficient and cost-cutting habits necessary for maintaining comfort this holiday season:

Schedule HVAC Maintenance

Your HVAC system is the heart of comfort in your home. If you have any plans of staying cozy this winter, you need to take care of your HVAC system. If you haven’t already done so, schedule a professional HVAC maintenance appointment. During a maintenance check-up, our service technicians will check your unit for worn or broken components, clean the unit, measure gas pressure, and conduct necessary repairs. Professional maintenance ensures that your system runs efficiently, safely, and that it can provide the comfort you demand.

Seal Your Home

You can’t get comfortable if all your HVAC-controlled air is seeping out of your home through leaks in the structure. Such leaks often open around windows, doors and in unfinished areas of your home, such as your garage or attic. No matter how hard you push your HVAC system, that heated air will exit your living space through those leaks as cool, outside air simultaneously enters your home. Seal those leaks by placing weather stripping around your doors and caulking around your windows. Check if your attic needs extra insulation, as well.

Humidify Your Air

While Floridians never have to deal with exceptionally dry air, humidity still drops in the winter. As a result, it can cause a number of problems, many of which lead to low indoor air quality and discomfort. You may be grateful that the humidity has fallen. But you’ve also probably noticed that you feel cooler than you’d expect. The problem is that humidity holds heat and makes your air feel warmer. To add some humidity to your air, install a whole-home humidifier that’ll work with your HVAC system to release regulated moisture into your airflow.

Use a Programmable Thermostat

The more control you have over your comfort, the more comfortable you’ll feel. With a programmable thermostat, you can set temperatures for certain times of day. For example, you can set your home to stay cooler — hence cutting your utility costs and improving your energy efficiency — while you’re at work and to warm up while you’re on the way home. To balance comfort and energy efficiency, set your programmable thermostat to 72 degrees while you’re home. If you can manage it without sacrificing too much comfort, turn it down a few more degrees.

Enjoy the Sun

You don’t only have to rely on your HVAC system to keep you comfortable. During the day, open your shades on the south and west sides of your home to let in the sunlight that will naturally warm your home. When you do this, you can remain comfortable while turning down your thermostat a few degrees and consequently saving some money. Just make sure you close those shades at night to keep the heat from escaping.

Warm Yourself

There’s plenty you can do to keep your home comfortable, but you’re the number-one priority. As long as you’re comfortable, you don’t have to rely as heavily on your HVAC system. On colder days, throw on a sweater, drink warm drinks, carry a blanket around the house, or bake something to let your oven warm you up. You don’t have to warm up every room in your home as long as you’re comfortable.

Don’t let discomfort keep you from enjoying the holiday season to the fullest extent. Use these simple tips to adjust your habits and build a more comfortable and energy-efficient living space. For professional HVAC maintenance that’ll bring efficiency to your system, call Preferred Air Conditioning & Mechanical, LLC at 561-202-1422.

Image provided by Shutterstock