Being prepared for Old Man Winter
Helpful tips to prepare your home.
1. First and foremost, schedule Fall maintenance on your heating system. Let one of our highly trained a certified technicians go over your system with a fine tooth comb. This may be able to prevent a major headache once the really cold weather arrives.
2. Let sunlight in during the day. Once the sun is up, you want to capture as much of that free heat as possible. Even on cold days, the sun is still warm. So before you leave the house for the day, open up those curtains and let the light shine in.
3. Keep curtains closed at night. Once the sun goes down, keep all that heat from leaving through the windows by closing the drapes. If you’re in a particularly cold home, consider getting insulated curtains for winter use. They’ll prevent some of the warmth in your home from escaping. You can even put up temporary curtains (sheets, rugs, etc.) over doors to the outside, even if just at night while you’re sleeping.
4. Take a look at your ceiling fans. If you have ceiling fans in your home, they may be sitting needlessly dormant during the winter months. Many fans have a “winter” setting, which reverses the fan so that it moves clockwise vs. counterclockwise. Since heat rises, the clockwise-spinning fan will push the heat back down into your rooms versus being trapped up at the ceilings.
5. Move furniture away from vents. Go around the house and double check that vents aren’t blocked, and if they are, find a way to move your furniture, at least for the winter. This will make sure every room is getting its maximum heat potential. Blocking return vents in a forced-air central heating system could also cause air pressure issues, which further disrupts the flow of heat.
6. Add layers to your wood floors. According to the National Energy Foundation, non-insulated wood floors can account for up to 10% of a home’s heat loss. Carpets and rugs were created for a reason — to keep rooms warmer. They’re far better at trapping heat than your creaky wood floors.
7. Let us install a programmable thermostat. This will keep your bill low, and your efficiency high. Instead of having to manually fiddle with your thermostat every time you leave the house or every time you come back home, this will save you time and money by your heat being on a set schedule.
8. If you are in an older house make sure there aren't any drafts coming through the outlets, doors or windows. The cold air seems to find its way in at any cost. There are plenty of products that you can purchase to help seal those crevices.