I often get asked how important it is to have a central air conditioning system cleaned and checked regularly, and is it really needed, so I thought I would share a story from earlier this week.

If your like me, you are always trying to find ways to save money. I always do the little things, like making sure I turn the light off when I leave a room, putting my computer at the best Power Saving settings and some other simpler energy saving methods to keep my bills low.

Here is a Easy Home Efficiency Solution

However, I know that I can be, most likely, running more efficient. I found a useful tool on the Energy Star Website that allows you to, with a little bit of information about your home, find out how you measure up when it comes to efficiency. It's called the "Home Energy Yardstick"

Here is the first of a series of videos that we will be showcasing every week on the ECI Comfort Website. We hope to not only show you the services that we offer, but to share great tips to help you improve the comfort of your home. This week we feature a video of a Home Assessment that ECI Comfort performed at the Morgan residence in the Parkwood section of Philadelphia.

Growing up, we were always told to put on a cap in the winter – we lose most of the heat from our bodies from our heads – same thing with your home. Protecting the top of our homes during the winter is like putting on a warm cap.

Our homes act like a big chimney, the taller the home, the greater movement of air, which is called stack effect.

Windows are a very important part of our lives - they allow us to see what is going on in the world, they let in sunshine, and they light our houses so we don’t have to use electricity during the day. We need windows.

But they are a mixed blessing. They have very low insulation values so they cost us a lot more than a plain wall would cost to heat and cool. Also, this low R-value means the surface is cold so we can feel cool standing next to them, and they have a lot of moving parts, which means they can leak air.

This winter so far has dealt us some brutally cold weather. With this comes high home heating oil usage as well as the associated high costs. There are many improvements that you can do to burn less oil and obviously save money and quite possibly increase your comfort levels.

The most obvious improvement most HVAC companies would recommend is the replacement of older inefficient boilers and furnaces with newer high efficiency equipment. This alone can save up to 30 percent of fuel usage depending on how old and inefficient your present equipment is. However, this may or may not be the best way to cut costs and improve efficiency.

According to studies, leaky duct work increases total cooling and heating energy usage by as much as 30%. That’s 30 cents out of every $1 you pay in energy bills. Over the course of a year, this can add up to hundreds of wasted dollars.

In typical homes, air leaks are often found at cracks, small holes, and penetrations for plumbing, wiring, lighting, and ductwork. Together, these leaks can add up to as

much air loss as having an open window! It’s easy to imagine how this can increase a homeowner’s utility bills and reduce comfort.

Sealing a home’s envelope—its exterior walls, ceiling, and floors—is an important step in controlling the indoor environment and lowering energy bills. The goal is to reduce air leakage as much as possible, while providing ventilation as needed for fresh air. In other words, “build it tight and ventilate it right.”