Before Investing in a New Furnace, Look to Your Windows February 19, 2016 This year it seems as though your home just can’t get warm enough. You keep running the furnace, keep spending money on heating oil, natural gas, or even on your increased electric rates. You turn the thermostat up one degree and feel a bit warmer for a while, but you constantly hear that furnace kicking on and off. Every time you hear the familiar rumble of the furnace in your basement, you may be shaking your head at the cost to do so. All this just to stay warm and comfortable in your own home, right? It’s easy to assume the furnace is the problem. You’ve talk to other people who replaced their old furnace with a new one and were completely thrilled with not only the cost savings, but just how quickly the home heats up now. Meanwhile, in the morning it seems to take an hour or more to get your home up to that ideal temperature. Before you set out to replace the furnace, it’s a good idea to look to your windows and even the entry doors in your home as a potential culprit for this dilemma. Sure, the furnace may be old, but if your windows are at least 10 years old themselves or the entry doors are at least 15 years old, they can be contributing to the excess cost to heat your home, making it take a lot longer to heat up, and cooling it down much too quickly. If the seals in your double glazed windows failed, the cold air outside is having a very easy time penetrating into your house. You might not feel a cold draft blowing in around those windows, but the subtle change on each window can be making a significant difference. In fact, 40 percent of your home’s heat is lost through your windows and doors. If you’re going to make an investment in replacing your furnace, make sure you get those windows as energy efficient as possible. Replacing old, outdated windows and entry doors may be a significant investment, but it’s going to pay for itself within a few years in cost savings on your energy bills.
