If you are looking for a way to reign in your heating costs, you may think that you have to go out and find the most technologically advanced, energy-efficient equipment that you can find. This is not a bad idea; it is also not a cost-saving idea. Replacing heating and cooling costs with financing costs does not necessarily free up room in your budget. However, if you start by upgrading your landscaping, you may be able to make room in your budget for newer equipment. 

Trees for Warmth

During the winter months, a strong arctic wind can blow across the outside of your home and siphon away heat. While good insulation can help to prevent heat loss. Your windows will not have the same insulating benefits as the rest of your home and can be a weak spot that allows the wind to siphon heat away. By planting trees on the north and west sides of your home, you can can create a windbreak that will reduce the wind's velocity and reduce your heating costs by up to 30%. 

The Best Furnace

If you are looking for the most energy-efficient furnace on the market, then you need look no further than a condensing furnace. A condensing furnace differs from the design of the classic furnace in that it has a second heat exchanger. This gives the furnace the ability to extract so much heat from the exhaust gases escaping from the furnace that they water vapor in the gas condenses back to a liquid. Once the water condenses, the remaining gases dissolve into the water, then drain out of the furnace through a drain pipe. This allows the furnace to achieve efficiency ratings of close to one hundred percent. In other words, almost one-hundred percent of the potential energy in the fuel your furnace burns goes to heating your home. 

You might be thinking that using trees to reduce heating costs seems like a nice but impractical idea. After all, who has forty years to wait for trees to reach maturity before you can start enjoying their cost saving benefits. Some trees can grow as much as 12 feet in a year, so if you buy the right tree, you don't necessarily have to wait decades to start receiving the energy saving benefits the trees provide. Once you combine the reduced heat loss you get by planting trees with the most efficient furnace on the market, you have a recipe for heating savings. To see if a condensing furnace can work in your home, talk to a heating contractor.