You are worried about looking at your monthly utility bills because they’ve started to have scary larger numbers after the dollar sign. Sometimes you can’t avoid higher costs on utilities, but this is a case where those higher costs are much more than the usual bump you expect during winter. You’re wondering about the cause of the increase … and an idea comes to mind: is your heating system malfunctioning?
That’s a sensible line of thinking. Your home’s heater accounts for a large amount of the energy you use during the winter. Even small malfunctions that don’t cause the heater to lose any heating output can create additional strain that forces the heating system to work harder. Let’s look at some of the possibilities below.