As soon as fall rolls around, it’s already time to prepare your home for winter.
In fact, as the cold season approaches, some preparations are in order to keep your family safe, protect your home against winter damage, reduce your electricity bills, and avoid insurance claims.
Here we have some inexpensive tips for insulating your home and several preventive maintenance tasks you can do yourself.
1. Equip yourself properly to face winter
Do not wait for the first storm before gathering the essentials to face the winter.
Here are some items of equipment to have on hand: an ergonomic shovel, an icebreaker, a shovel for removing snow from roofs, and sand or salt to prevent slipping in your driveway.
Also, prepare emergency supplies in the event of a prolonged power outage caused by a winter storm.
Make sure you have working flashlights and radio, canned food, bottled water, a gas stove, warm blankets, candles and matches, food for your pets, medicines for the whole family, and a first aid kit.
1. Don’t neglect the maintenance
Take advantage of the warm fall weather to do the annual maintenance on your home.
Check the correct operation of your heating system with the help of the instruction booklet and replace the defective parts if necessary.
Get the best boiler cover to ensure hot water supply throughout the winter.
Not only will your heating system be more efficient if it is properly maintained, but tune-up could prevent a fire as well.
2. Save money with adequate house insulation
Don’t let the heat leak from your home. Insulate your water heater and hot water pipes.
You will minimize heat loss and may even gain a few degrees more.
These two small actions will allow you to lower the temperature of the water heater and reduce the electricity bill at the same time.
Insulated hot water pipes are also less likely to freeze or burst.
3. Prevent infiltration of cold and humidity: wintering inside the house
Your home may be less waterproof than you think.
Check the tightness of all doors leading to the outside and locate all those whose insulating rubber needs replacing.
Check the condition of the sealant joints around the windows.
Apply insulating tape around electrical outlets and openings in the attic.
If you wish, you can also cover your windows with a large plastic wrap for the winter months.
Be aware that cold air can also enter through cracks or holes in the foundation or on exterior walls.
Pick a good mortar or sealant and fill all the holes!
This will prevent air or water infiltration into the house. These inexpensive initiatives can generate substantial energy savings.
4. Lower the house temperature in winter
Now is a great time to take out your warm clothes and socks.
Even if the weather is getting colder and winter is coming, set your thermostat to a slightly lower temperature than usual and reduce the temperature of the hot water.
You’ll save energy again and avoid hefty electricity bills.