We aren’t breaking any news here, as every Greater Indianapolis homeowner is surely well aware of the simple fact that your home’s heating expenses are more than likely going to vastly outweigh what it costs to cool your home.

But why is that?

As with most answers related to heating and cooling here in our temperamental Midwest climate, it depends on a few factors. But here’s an easy way to think about it:

Let’s say you want to keep your home at a comfortable 73 degrees. Back during the summer when it was, for example, 90 degrees out, that means overcoming a 17-degree difference between the interior and exterior air.

But in the dead of winter, if it’s only 10 degrees outside, we’re now talking about a 63-degree difference from outside air to how you want your home to feel.

Your furnace is going to have to work much harder — and much more often — to get your home to that 73-degree mark in the winter than your air conditioner will in the summer.

That might be an overly simplified way of looking at it, but the deeper science behind the thought process checks out, too. Converting electrical or gas energy into heat energy to “make” heat is an expensive process. By contrast, our summer air conditioners aren’t actually “making” any cold air — instead, they’re taking heat from inside our homes and moving it outside. That hot air you can feel blowing out of your exterior unit in the summer? That was the warmth originally inside your house!

Another advantage we have in the summer is the ability to open our windows and let the breeze blow in to help cool our homes. This gives our air conditioners (and wallets!) a much-needed break. There’s just no comparable wintertime convenience, hence why we hear from homeowners about their heating bills being as much as two to four times more expensive than cooling costs.

While there’s no easy fix to drastically reduce your winter energy bills, we’ve shared previously some simple steps homeowners can take to keep heating costs under control this year.

Upgrades to high-efficiency Bryant systems and state-of-the-art accessories from Hoosier Indoor Air like programmable thermostats can help, too!

Talk to our team today if you’re concerned about high heating bills this winter. Our experts can come inspect your home and provide a free, no-obligation estimate with ways we can cut your monthly costs and keep your family comfortable.