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Heating Oil Energy Assistance
87 Ways to Save Money on Heating Oil
Full Quick Start List Page 3 of 3
Quick Start Heat Savings Page 1 Quick Start Heat Savings Page 2
Move your furniture away from the baseboards. Allow the heat to radiate into the room, not get stifled by the furniture. You want to be warm not just your furniture!
Clean your radiators.
Take the exterior panels off and vacuum and brush the fins.
All that dirt, hair and gunk cover the fins and it act as an insulator preventing the heat to escape into the room.
Clean baseboard fins … lots more efficient.
Close your curtains and shades at night to keep the cold out…
Open the curtains and shades during the day when the sun is shinning on that side of the house. Essentially you’re benefiting from passive solar heat.(continues below)
This ones simple. but easy to forget…
If you have a wood stove or a fire place, make sure the wood stove or a fire place dampers are shut when they are not in use. If they are down for the season and you won’t be using them button up that damper with insulation.
Service contract issues? Do you really need one?
Depends on the age of your system. Sign up to access the complete resource section (top of the page on the left) and get real tested estimates of just how long parts/systems can work.
Top questions you need to be asking your heating service tech when they are working on your heating system. I’ve included a video of a tune up done properly with all the details.
You’ll look like an educated consumer and the service techs will make sure to do their very best.
Was the chimney base cleaned?
This tends to be a dirty job and lots of techs forget on purpose.
In the mean time your chimney and your smoke pipe get filled up and don’t work properly. It is part of the process and needs to get done.
How does the combustion chamber look? Any cracks?
This tells the tech you know what your talking about and he will do a better job checking that chamber.
Are all the seams in the heating system smoke pipe sealed?
This reminds him to be detailed.
Is the heat exchanger cleaned really well?
Just a small amount of soot can kill your efficiency so the cleaner the exchanger the better for you.
If you have any questions please drop me a note.
Remember this is a quick start only. Take the time to get into the 87 tips.
Check out residential-building-code-tips for more consmer advocacy help
Stay warm, stay safe and save money
