Wasting energy often means wasting money, too. Thankfully, we’ve created this helpful guide to help you save both this fall! Keep reading for more info. 

The Biggest Homeowner Energy Mistakes During Fall

Most people have a basic understanding of heating and cooling their house, what wastes energy, and what doesn’t. The fall, however, can be a tricky time—you’ll have days that are cold at night and first thing in the morning, but hot in the middle of the day. Here are some of the most common homeowner energy mistakes during fall:

Waiting Until Fall to Check Your Heating Unit

When you don’t need heat in the summer, it’s all too easy to forget you even have a heating unit! But there’s a reason so many people’s units and boilers go out during the first week of actually cold weather. Spring and summer are the perfect times to get a checkup and to have any necessary maintenance done, so you can rest easy on that first chilly night of the year!

Lowering the Temperature Too Much at Night

This energy mistake might surprise you! Using less energy overnight to heat up your house should be a good thing, right? In theory you’re correct. However, the amount of effort that your boiler or heating unit will have to expend to heat things back up in the morning is more harmful than helpful. 

Instead, lower the temperature just a few degrees. Your heating unit will get a nice break—but won’t have to pay for it dearly the next day! 

Keeping the Curtains Drawn

Little things make a big impact, and there are lots of little things you can do to save energy (and money) during the fall and winter. For starters, letting the sun in through your windows is a great way to naturally warm things up! You’d be surprised how much those rays can do. The only potential catch? If your windows aren’t well insulated, they could leak a significant amount of heat. 

Buying the Wrong Space Heater

A space heater, in theory, is a great option for lowering your energy consumption—especially if you find yourself only using one room for most of the day. But you need to make sure you’re buying the right kind of space heater, otherwise your efforts are in vain!

A convection heater is the way to go. They take longer to heat up than radiant heaters, but are much better at holding onto that heat for a while. Using the right space heater in a single room can certainly preserve energy. 

The Shipshape Solution

We wouldn’t be surprised if you utilized all of these tips except for the one that involves preventive maintenance. It’s an easy thing to shrug off and worry about later! Not to mention that checkups and maintenance can get expensive. 

Enter Shipshape, your smart home predictive maintenance platform. With the Shipshape app, you can monitor the health and efficiency of just about any unit in your home. That way, there’s no second guessing how your heating unit or boiler will handle things come fall and winter! And, with it, you can be eligible for even more direct savings through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). There’s never been a better time to have a mind for energy efficiency in the home. For peace of mind in your pocket, get in touch to learn more.