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Lower your thermostat - Save $
You likely won't notice a huge difference if you turn it down just a few degrees, a move that can shave 5 percent to 10 percent off your heating bill. It's especially wise to turn down the heat whenever you leave your home for several hours. The Aprilaire Thermostat featured, is easy to program and offers a combination of simplicity, value, reliability, comfort and style. Other benefits include:

Easy to Use Temperature Control and ability to override the program schedule at any time.

Progressive Recovery assures that the heating and cooling equipment starts at the optimum time to reach choosen temperature by the time you want it.

Choice of 5/1/1 Day or 5/2 Day Programming. This allows for customization of your weekday and weekend schedule based on your needs.


Light a candle - Save $
Not for warmth, but for the purpose of doing a little sleuth work. Hold the flame near windows, doors and light fixtures and look for smoke moving in a horizontal direction. If you see it, that means you've spotted an air leak, and it likely means heat is escaping your home easily. To solve that problem, install some low-cost caulking or weather-stripping, or consider adding some insulating material.

Shades up or down - Be Comfortable
During the heating season, keep the draperies and shades on your south-facing windows open during the day to allow the sunlight to enter your home and closed at night to reduce the chill you may feel from cold windows.

Get a FREE Leak detection Kit - Peace of Mind
A silent leak in a toilet can waste up to 7,000 gallons of water per month. Getting a leak detection test done can save you money. We'll send you one free of charge. Call us today @ 608 838 7300 and we'll send you one. You can also request one by emailing us @ This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Garbage Disposal Maintenance - Peace of Mind
Always use cold water. This will ensure that any grease that may get into the unit will be solidified and chopped up before reaching the trap.

To keep the blades sharp fill the unit with ice cubes and turn it on. To ensure optimum performance do this every month or so. When most of the ice is crushed, run the unit with hot water; this will help to clean it out.

Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters (GFCIs) - Peace of Mind
GFCIs can help prevent electrocution. They should be used in any area where water and electricity may come into contact. When a GFCI senses current leakage in an electrical circuit, it assumes a ground fault has occurred. It then interrupts power fast enough to help prevent serious injury from electrical shock. Test GFCIs according to the manufacturer's instructions monthly and after major electrical storms to make sure they are working properly.

Tips on how to conserve energy - while saving money - $
> Turn your refrigerator down. Refrigerators account for about 20% of Household electricity use. Use a thermometer to set your refrigerator temperature as close to 37 degrees and your freezer as close to 3 degrees as possible. Make sure that its energy saver switch is turned on. Also, check the gaskets around your refrigerator/freezer doors to make sure they are clean and sealed tightly

> Set your clothes washer to the warm or cold water setting, not hot. Switching from hot to warm for two loads per week can save nearly 500 pounds of CO2 per year if you have an electric water heater, or 150 pounds for a gas heater.

> Make sure your dishwasher is full when you run it and use the energy saving setting, if available, to allow the dishes to air dry. You can also turn off the drying cycle manually. Not using heat in the drying cycle can save 20 percent of your dishwasher's total electricity use.

> Turn down your water heater thermostat. Thermostats are often set to 140 degrees F when 120 is usually fine. Each 10 degree reduction saves 600 pounds of CO2 per year for an electric water heater, or 440 pounds for a gas heater. If every household turned its water heater thermostat down 20 degrees, we could prevent more than 45 million tons of annual CO2 emissions - the same amount emitted by the entire nations of Kuwait or Libya.

> Be careful not to overheat or over cool rooms. In the winter, set your thermostat at 68 degrees in daytime, and 55 degrees at night. In the summer, keep it at 78. Lowering your thermostat just two degrees during winter saves 6 percent of heating-related CO2 emissions. That's a reduction of 420 pounds of CO2 per year for a typical home.

> Clean or replace air filters as recommended. Energy is lost when air conditioners and hot-air furnaces have to work harder to draw air through dirty filters. Cleaning a dirty air conditioner filter can save 5 percent of the energy used. That could save 175 pounds of CO2 per year.

> Use less hot water by installing low-flow shower heads. They cost just $10 to $20 each, deliver an invigorating shower, and save 300 pounds of CO2 per year for electrically heated water, or 80 pounds for gas-heated water.

All Comfort Services can help you put these tips into action. Call us at 608 838 7300 for more information. If you prefer, you can email us This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it