Tips for Retaining Heat in Winter

Windows typically account for 25 percent of annual heating and cooling costs, but they can account for as much as 40%. If you have old, single-pane windows, solar energy films are key to stopping excessive and unnecessary heating bills.

When winter’s icy chill is well under way in the Greater Toronto Area; temperatures have dropped and our heating bills have skyrocketed. But, there are a number of ways to keep you and your home from succumbing to the energy-robbing cold. Below we give you some tips on furnace maintenance, winter-proofing, and window films that can all contribute to increased comfort and greatly reduced energy bills.

A few tips on saving energy at home include simple things such as making sure your furnace has a clean air filter, installing weather stripping or caulking to reduce cold air leaking into your home, and programming your thermostat to a lower temperature while you’re away and at night. Many new internet connected thermostats like Nest or ecobee3 learn your preferences and your schedule. This mens they reduce the heat when you are not around and maintain a comfortable temperature when you are home, which greatly reduces waste. Once you get beyond these simple ideas, some other more expensive options arise, such as installing a more efficient furnace, adding insulation to your attic or crawl space, or replacing windows.

The latter targets one of the major sources of heat loss in your home: your windows. Windows typically account for 25 percent of annual heating and cooling costs, but they can account for as much as 40 percent. However, there are ways to save energy with your windows without the major cost of replacing them. Installing Solar Energy Window Films to your home improves the efficiency of your windows and can be a more cost effective energy saving option.

Heritage homes are a prime example of how window films can be used to their true potential. Heritage homes have stringent guidelines on preserving their original window “look” which can be prohibitively expensive. The majority of these owners simply remove new windows from their heritage home renovation budget and they suffer from heat loss in winter, heat gain in summer and fading issues year-round. We have applied high performance window films to heritage homes and buildings all over Canada with tremendous results. Installation does not alter the appearance while offering most of the energy conservation benefits one would get from new windows at a fraction of the cost.

Window films block harmful UV rays (99%) while reflecting solar energy to protect your house and keep it cool in the summer. But standard solar-control window films have little to no affect in the winter when you want to RETAIN heat. This is when we recommend Nano Ceramic Films as a year round energy saving product. These window films act as an insulator that redirects radiant heat back into your home to keep more of it and your money from flying out the window.

Hüper Optik Ceramic Film contains special coatings that can add up to 92 percent more insulating power to the glass in your windows. From an efficiency standpoint, that essentially transforms your single-pane windows into double-pane windows without the sizeable cost of new windows. It also delivers savings to your monthly heating bill and helps lower cooling costs in summer too.

Interested in a consultation? We would love to hear from you. Just give us a call or send us a message to get a free quote along with some advice on how you can become more energy efficient and more comfortable this coming winter.