There's nothing quite like the sharp jolt of icy floors and brisk morning air to remind you that winter has settled in. It's the season for cranking up the heat . But keeping warm isn't just about flipping a switch on the thermostat . Winter comfort often comes with a hefty price tag, leaving many dreading their utility bills. Here's the good news: it doesn't have to be that way. Whether you rely on a traditional furnace or a modern HVAC system, a little know-how can go a long way. By finding the sweet spot for your heating settings and making simple adjustments to your home's energy habits, you can stay toasty while keeping costs under control. Winter warmth doesn't have to mean financial freeze. "It's more than just a number on the wall," said Julian Picard, owner of HVAC company Centerline Mechanical . Can solar panels save you money? Interested in understanding the impact solar can have on your home? Enter some basic information below, and we’ll instantly provide a free estimate of your energy savings. Here's what you need to know to stay comfortable this winter, and potentially save some money on your heating bill. This is the ideal thermostat temperature for the winter In the winter, experts recommend that you set your thermostat to 68 degrees Fahrenheit when you're home, and 60 to 65 degrees when you're asleep or away. You can set it higher, but that will reduce efficiency and lead to higher energy bills. It also depends on what the weather is like outside, Picard said. If it's 20 F outside, maybe don't set your thermostat to 80 F, he advised. Then there's the question of changing the temperature at night or when you're not home. The Department of Energy suggests you turn your thermostat back 7 to 10 degrees from its normal setting for 8 hours a day, saying that can save as much as 10% a year on heating and cooling. Picard suggested a smaller change: Lower the temperature by just four degrees when you're away or asleep. This means your system won't have to work quite as hard to get back to temperature.. "You don't want to have drastic changes in temperature," said Mahlie Dukes, franchise owner of WIN Home Inspection in Indiana. You should also get to know your specific heating system. If you notice, for example, that your home never gets up to the temperature you set, that could be a sign that your system is improperly sized for your home , Picard says. And it's a cue to lower your thermostat setting so your HVAC won't constantly be working on overdrive. Read more: You Can Actually Save Money by Using Electricity at These Specific Times This is the ideal thermostat temperature for the summer In the summer, the ideal temperature for your thermostat is 75 to 78 F when you're home, and 80 degrees when you're away or asleep, Dukes said. The DOE suggests 78 F during the day, 82 F when you're sleeping and 85 F when you're not home. Most importantly, you want to make sure your system can handle it. If you notice that the house never gets as cool as your thermostat setting, that probably means your system is not sized well for your home, and you might want to ease up on the cooling. You may also want to check on how well sealed your doors and windows are and how well insulated your home is . Air conditioners can only really cool your home to 15 to 20 degrees below the outdoor temperature, so setting the thermostat too low can result in your system running without being effective. Does it matter what type of HVAC you have? Yes and no. The same general temperature recommendations apply regardless of the type of HVAC you have in your home, Picard says. But your results may vary depending on the type and size of your system. Systems that are over- or under-sized for your home will run inefficiently, which leads to higher heating and cooling costs. This is why Picard recommends that you have an HVAC professional inspect and clean your system annually. These pros can tell you how best to use your specific system for the best comfort and efficiency, he said. Avoid this common thermostat mistake Say your home is quite a bit colder than you'd prefer, and you want it to be perfect now. It may be 65 F inside and you may want it to be 70 F. Don't set it to 75 in the hopes that it will warm it up faster. Most HVAC units have two settings -- on or off -- and there's no getting to 70 F any more quickly. Set your thermostat to the temperature you want it to be. Setting to a warmer or cooler temperature than you actually desire in the hopes that will speed things along will just result in overcooling or overheating -- and overspending on your energy bills. Is your thermostat in the wrong place? Your thermostat knows how to set the temperature because it has a thermometer in it. So if your thermostat is in the wrong spot , it won't give you an accurate reading of the temp in your home. You want to avoid having your thermostat in a location that sees frequent changes in temperature or humidity, like in the kitchen or the bathroom. If it's on an exterior wall, it might be more sensitive to outdoor temperature changes. Instead, try to position your thermostat on an interior wall in a location like your living room. And if you have a thermostat that supports external room sensors, having sensors in other locations, like a bedroom, can help you better regulate the temperature in the rooms where you spend most of your time. Save money by setting your thermostat Reducing your energy bills this year doesn't have to be hard. "There's a huge misconception that in order to be energy efficient you must be uncomfortable," Picard said. Homeowners can also look at areas beyond their thermostat. Investing in good insulation , for example, can greatly reduce how much strain you put on your HVAC system. "You'd be surprised how much energy we blow right through our attics," Picard said. That annual inspection and maintenance appointment can also help save you money. Picard said buildup within your HVAC system can lead to efficiency losses of up to 10% annually, which you'll see on your energy bill. That's why having it cleaned every year is a good move. And if you're in the market for a new HVAC system, it's a great time to take stock and make sure what you have fits your specific home.If you’ve ever been tempted by the thought that Australia forging our future by becoming a global “superpower” is a nice idea but probably not a realistic one, I have big news. New evidence shows it’s the smart way to fund our future. Last week, while we were engaged in a stupid argument over whether the Future Fund should continue growing forever and earning top dollar by being invested in other countries’ futures rather than our own, few people noticed a report much more germane to our future. The Superpower Institute – set up by the man who first had the idea, Professor Ross Garnaut, with former competition watchdog Rod Sims – put its money where its mouth was and produced hard evidence that the idea could work. World-first analysis of likely international trade in clean energy by Ross Garnaut’s Superpower Institute finds Australia could contribute up to 10 per cent of the world’s emissions reductions. Credit: It employed Dr Reuben Finighan to test and extend Garnaut’s argument with a detailed analysis of the future energy supply and demand in five potential importing countries, which together account for more than half of global greenhouse gas emissions: China, Japan, South Korea, India and Germany. Finighan’s report, The New Energy Trade , provides world-first analysis of likely international trade in clean energy and finds Australia could contribute up to 10 per cent of the world’s emissions reductions while generating six to eight times larger revenues than those typical from our fossil fuel exports. He demonstrates that, though Australia’s present comparative advantage in producing fossil fuels – coal and natural gas – for export will lose its value as the world moves to net zero carbon emissions, it can be replaced by a new and much more valuable comparative advantage in exporting energy-intensive iron and steel, aluminium and urea, plus green fuels for shipping, aviation and road freight, with our renewable energy from solar and wind embedded in them. Unusually, Finighan’s focus is on the role that international trade will need to play in helping the world reach net zero emissions at minimum cost to the economy. He reminds us that the world’s present high standard of living could not have been achieved without the use of fossil fuels, which required extensive trade between the countries that didn’t have enough oil, coal and gas of their own, and those countries that had far more than they needed for their own use. It’s cheaper to use locally made electricity to produce energy-intensive products ... before exporting them. Our participation in this trade, of course, explains much of our success in becoming a rich country. It will be the same story in the net-zero world, with much trade in renewable energy between those countries that can’t produce enough of their own at reasonable cost, and those countries with abundant ability to produce solar and wind power at low cost. Again, we have the potential to be a low-cost producer of renewable energy, exporting most of it to the world and earning a good living from it. Finighan says countries with the most abundant and thus cheapest renewable energy available for export are those whose solar and wind resources are more intense, less seasonal and that have abundant land relative to the size of their population and economy. Those few countries include us. Garnaut says we’re the country with by far the largest capacity to export to the densely populated, highly developed countries of the northern hemisphere. Finighan finds we can produce “essentially limitless low-cost green electricity”. The required solar and wind farms would occupy about 0.6 per cent of our land mass. Include the space between the wind turbines and that rises to a shocking 1.1 per cent. To put this in the sign language of economists, on a diagram plotting what would happen to our cost of supply as (world) demand increased, the curve would start very low and stay relatively flat. But, Finighan points out, there’s one big difference between the old trade in dirty energy and the new trade in clean energy. Whereas fossil fuels are cheap to transport, shipping clean energy is prohibitively expensive. Remember that a key strategy in the global move to net-zero is to produce electricity only from renewable sources, then use it to replace as many uses of fossil fuels as possible, including gas in households and industry, and petrol in cars. You can’t export electricity, but transforming it into hydrogen or ammonia requires huge amounts of electricity, thus involving much loss of energy and increased cost. So it’s cheaper to use locally made electricity to produce energy-intensive products such as iron, aluminium, urea and so forth locally, before exporting them. That is, the world trade in clean energy will mainly involve that energy being embedded in “green” products. This means, for the first time ever, making certain classes of manufacturing part of our comparative advantage. Finighan finds that, by ignoring the role trade will play in the process of decarbonisation, and thus the need for countries with limited capacity to produce their own renewables to import them in embedded form, earlier studies, including those by the International Energy Agency, have underestimated how much more electricity production the world will need. In examining the likely energy needs of the five large economies – four in Asia and one in Europe – he projects large shortfalls in their local supply of electricity. By mid-century, Japan, South Korea and Germany will have shortfalls of between 37 and 66 per cent. Because of their later targets for reaching net-zero, China’s greatest shortfall won’t occur until 2060, and India’s until 2070. These calculations take full account of the role of nuclear energy. It’s one of the most expensive means of generating clean energy. Unlike renewable technology, it’s become much more costly over time, not only in the rich economies but also in those such as India. Nuclear will play a minor role even in countries where heavy government subsidies render it competitive, such as China. Even if China triples its recent rate of building nuclear, it may contribute only 7 per cent of electricity supply by 2060. In those shortfalls, of course, lies a massive potential market for Australia’s exports of green manufactures. So, to mix metaphors, the dream of us becoming a superpower turns out to have legs. All the Labor government and the Coalition opposition have to do now is extract the digit. Ross Gittins is the economics editor The Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day’s trading. Get it each weekday afternoon .
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The Gunners took two points out of Liverpool’s lead at the summit of the Premier League after Jurrien Timber and William Saliba struck in the second half – both from corners – to condemn Amorim to his first defeat as United boss. The hosts’ second-half strikes took their goals-from-corners tally to 22 since the start of last season – a statistic that is unmatched by any other team in the division. Asked if Arsenal are one of the best teams he has come up against on corners, Amorim replied: “If you follow the Premier League for a long time you can see that. “They are also big players and you see every occasion when (Gabriel) Martinelli and (Bukayo) Saka have one-on-ones, a lot of times they go outside and they cross, and they know that if the cross goes well, they can score, and if it is a corner they can score, too, so we have to be better on that. “You have seen in all Arsenal games that every team have had problems with that (corners). And the difference today was the set-pieces. “You see a goal and then the momentum changed, and it is really hard for us to take the full control of the game after that.” Timber leaned into Rasmus Hojlund at the front post before diverting Declan Rice’s set-piece into the back of Andre Onana’s net after 54 minutes to send Arsenal into the lead. Thomas Partey’s header from Saka’s corner then deflected in off Saliba’s shoulder with 17 minutes left. Arteta and the club’s set-piece guru Nicolas Jover embraced on the touchline as Amorim was left with his head in his hands. The Arsenal supporters cheered raucously every time they won a corner – landing 13 in all without reply. However, Arteta moved to play down the significance of Arsenal’s set-piece threat. “We need that, but we want to be very dangerous and very effective from every angle and every phase of play,” said Arteta. “Today we could have scored from open play like we did against West Ham and Sporting. Last year we scored the most goals in the history of this football club. Arsenal have won four consecutive Premier League matches against Man Utd for the first time ever! 💫 pic.twitter.com/biv1kvsJEP — Premier League (@premierleague) December 4, 2024 “Not because of only set-pieces, but because of a lot of things that we have. We want to create individual and magic moments, too.” Arsenal’s win against United – the first time they have recorded four victories in a row against the Red Devils in the league – was their fourth in succession since the international break. They will head to Fulham on Sunday bidding to keep the momentum going. Arteta continued: “The will to win is there. We try our best to do that. We won four in a row, but it doesn’t matter. We have to go to Fulham now, try to be better than them and try win the game. “It’s every three days that we play. It’s a crazy schedule. We’re going to need everybody and to mentally be very strong.”Gov. Abbott Targets CCP Infiltration In TexasFrom wealth and success to murder suspect, the life of Luigi Mangione took a hard turnFrom Maui to the Caribbean, college hoops' Thanksgiving tournaments a beloved part of the sport
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