Preparing Your Home For Winter and Saving Money While You’re At It
Last week, we discussed heating systems as the cold months approach. Whatever system you have in your home, make sure you get your HVAC unit tuned up for the cold months because the last thing you need on a frigid Friday night is having to wait until Monday for it to be fixed.
Plus, repairs cost more than maintenance. And we’re all about saving money here, which is the focus of this week’s article. How can you save money on your energy bill during the winter?
When it comes to high energy bills, a lot of the issues stem from losing heat, which means you’re wasting energy – which in turn means that you’re wasting money. In this case, the idea here is to minimize your heat loss. Not only will this ensure that you don’t spend as much heating your home, but it will also keep your HVAC unit from having to overwork itself and require more maintenance over the years.
First, find drafts so you can seal them up.
To start, you want to be able to find the leaks, so to speak. These are places where heat escapes from your home or allow cold air in (or both). You need to seal those drafts up, but first you need to find them.
Chances are, you can probably feel most of them. Is there a chill next to that window? Maybe the top pane is slightly ajar. If you’re checking before the weather gets too cold, the best way to catch drafts is to light a candle and carry it around your home. When the candle flame flickers, there’s probably a leak nearby.
Seal up those leaks.
So you’ve found the drafts? Great! Now, you need to actually do something about them, and there are many ways to go about it. The easiest ways are for the most obvious issues: for example, sand snakes (long bags filled with sand for insulation purposes) are best for putting under doors or on windowsills to keep the chill out.
If your doors and windows leak more than average, though, pay attention to that. It may be cheaper in the long run to add weather strips to your front and back doors, while storm/insulated windows might be a better idea than trying to plug a gaping leak, which at some point is bound to be like bailing out a sinking boat with a thimble. Think in terms of efficiency.
How do your doors and windows fit?
Weather strips and sand snakes can only do so much, because their effectiveness assumes that your doors and windows fit reasonably well in their frames to begin with. Years of changing seasons can warp wooden doors and windows, so don’t forget to keep track of that as the years go by. This can even happen to metal doors.
While you might not need to actually replace your front door, you should still check the fit when the weather changes. It could be as simple as giving the door an extra hard shove when you close it so it makes a better seal. Then, your weather strips of sand snakes can actually do their jobs.
Water damage leads to leaks.
Water damage is a problem on several fronts, so by the time you have it, your reasons for fixing it go well beyond high energy costs. Still, escaped air is a side effect of water damage, so it’s best to just prevent it in the first place.
Keep your gutters clear year-round, especially during the fall as the leaves start piling up. If you have a particularly rainy autumn, then there’s a bigger risk of clogged gutters leading to water damage and cracks, which some homeowners may not notice since we’re less likely to be outside doing yardwork as the weather cools down.
Bonus tip for heating: ceiling fans are more useful than you might think in the winter.
Most people don’t know this, but there’s a reason your ceiling fans have two settings. One setting pushes air down, which is useful for both cold and hot months. In cold months, a low speed on this setting can push rising hot air down towards the floor, where people are.
The other setting pulls air up, which can pull hot air away from the floor during the summer months. You can use this setting to your advantage in the winter as well. If you have a fireplace or other zone-heating source, using the “pull” setting on your fan can pull hot air away from the heat source and around the home, giving you more reach than the source would ordinarily get on its own.
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- Get It Right Solutions