Tips To Keep Your Home Warm And Comfortable When Cold Weather Arrives (NAPSA)—You can give cold 7) a + ae weather a warm welcome by ensuring that your house stays comfortable before the first snow falls. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and ENERGY STAR offer these energy-efficient tips to keep your home warm: Check Your Equipment— Energy-efficient heating equip- Oe En ment, sized and installed cor- rectly, will make occupants more comfortable and can save home- owners as much as 20 percent on their annual energy costs. Clean Your Filter—A dirty air filter can increase energy costs and lead to early equipmentfailure. Clean or changetheair filter in your heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) system monthly. Seal Your Home—Hidden gaps and cracks can add up to as much airflow as an open window. Home sealing can improve your home “envelope’—the outer walls, ceiling, windows and floors—and can save up to 10 percent in energy costs. Start by sealing air leaks and addinginsulation. Tighten Your Ducts—If you have a forced-air furnace or heat pump, a duct system is responsi- ble for circulating warm air throughout your home. Leaky ducts can reduce your system’s overall efficiency by 20 percent. Sealing your ducts can save up to $140 annually on energy bills. Test Your Home—ENERGY STAR has online tools (www.energy star.gov/homeimprovement) to evaluate your home’s energy performance and offers solutions to increase comfort. When heating equipment is installed correctly, every room in your home will have consistent heat. If these steps don’t work and your homeisstill feeling chilly, it’s probably time to replace your HVAC equipment. Whenselecting a new heat pumpor furnace, it’s important to select products that are energyefficient. Heat pumps are available with energy-efficiency ratings of 13 through 18 SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio). The York Affinity heat pumps from Johnson Controls, for example, can double the efficiency of many older units. Or, the York Affinity 92+ percent Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency furnaces are also ENERGY STAR qualified and include single-stage, two-stage and modulating models. To learn more about energyefficient home-heating equipment, you can visit www.yorkupg.com.
