Winterizing Your Home
As you begin to prepare your wardrobe for the upcoming cold temperatures, it’s crucial to remember the importance of prepping your home as well. To put it bluntly, the winter months can take a serious toll on your home and energy costs if you don’t take action beforehand. Don’t let that scare you though, most of these winterizing chores only take a couple of minutes and can save you some serious cash.
So if you’re looking to save a few bucks this winter while making your home as comfortable as possible, this article will show you how.
Wrap Pipes
If you’ve ever had the experience of a burst pipe in your home, then you already know how devastating it can be. This issue is typically caused by water that freezes in your pipes and then expands, which causes the pipe to “burst”.
Most of the internal pipes of your home (between floors/walls) should be safe from freezing temperatures. However, areas like crawl spaces, attics, and garages may have house pipes that aren’t exposed to the heat from your furnace. If you want to prevent a river of water flowing through your floors and walls, insulate the pipes in your home with some pre-slit pipe foam. This can be purchased at most hardware stores.
Add/Replace Insulation
While you’re checking your attic, crawl spaces, and garage for cold pipes, make note of the amount of insulation in these areas. It’s recommended to have 12 inches of insulation in your attic to prevent energy loss.
There are a number of different options when purchasing insulation, much of which depends on the climate you live in. We recommend speaking with an insulation professional at your local hardware store to determine how much you need and which type of insulation is best for your home.
Check Alarms
It should be no surprise that the number of house fires goes up drastically during the winter — running your furnace, burning candles, and malfunctioning Christmas lights being the main culprits. Protect your family from these serious dangers by checking and replacing the batteries in your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors as soon as possible.
Reverse Fan Blades
Did you know most ceiling fans are designed to be reversed between summer and winter? Your fan should be set to turn counter-clockwise
in the summer (pulling warm air upwards), and clockwise in the winter (pushes the warm air down).
If you’re not sure how to make this change, consult your owner’s manual for further directions.
Winterize A/C
If you have an outdoor A/C unit, to prevent rusting and internal damage to your A/C unit it is a smart idea to cover it during the winter months. You should also drain any water that may still be contained in the hoses and clean out leaves or other debris.
If you have a window unit, simply drain it and bring it inside. It’s pretty simple!
Inspect/Clean Ducts
Leaky air ducts can result in a good portion of your heated air escaping before it even enters your home. Inspecting your ducts is particularly important if it’s been a while since you’ve had your HVAC system and ducts inspected, as you should have them inspected every few years.
While you could attempt to do this yourself, it can be quite tedious. We recommend hiring a professional to inspect your HVAC system and ducts. They have specialized equipment that can quickly and easily help them detect problem areas.
And don’t forget that we’ve got all the HVAC parts you could need if your system needs any repairing!
Winterize Motorized Equipment
Since you won’t be needing your lawn equipment for a few months, take the time now to properly winterize and store it. We put together a separate blog showing you exactly how to do this, please click here for a complete guide.
Wrap-up
A properly winterized home will give you peace of mind during the hectic holiday season – you’ll save time, money and the stress of dealing with potential problems. Do the work now and you’ll thank yourself later.
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