Tips to Winterize Your Home

Tips to Winterize Your Home

Many people live in houses that become drafty during the cold winter months. Cold air often enters a home through leaks in windows and doorways. Fortunately, there are several ways to prevent drafts from sneaking into a home. The following tips will help to prevent drafts in your house in addition to several other suggestions for winterizing a home. A few simple preparations may lead to a warmer, more inviting home this winter.

• Clean Out Your Gutters

  • When winterizing your home, the exterior of your house can be just as important as the interior. For instance, your gutters should not go overlooked. By having your gutters cleaned, you can improve water flow during the winter. When water flow is improved, it can prevent icicles and even ice dams from building up.

  • After all the leaves have fallen from the trees around your house, make sure any outdoor drains are clear of debris, as this will help prevent basement flooding. As the ice and snow melts you want it to go to your drain, not your basement.

• Protect Against Drafts

  • Inside your house, protecting against draft is important to winterizing your home. Not only will it help keep your space warm, it can also cut down on your utility bills. There are endless ways to prevent draft in your home, but by paying attention to gaps in your home’s framework, like underneath doors, your efforts will be most efficient.

  • For instance, plastic window insulation can keep hot air in and cold air out. New weather stripping can improve the seals on your doors and windows. Draft guards can be slipped underneath doors to keep the heat of a particular room from escaping, and so on.

• Seal Off Unused Rooms

  • In addition to protecting against draft, you can also consider sealing off unused rooms in your home. For example, if you don’t plan on using that spare bedroom this winter, or if you hardly retreat to the basement, you can seal these spaces off.

  • Shut the doors and windows and seal them off with insulation. Close any vents so that your heater doesn’t heat this room, and block the air flow under the doorway. This way, your HVAC system will only heat the rooms that you are using, which can cut down on your utility bills.

• Replace Filters

  • Basic furnace filters are designed to trap dust, dirt, and airborne particulates before they can get into the system and potentially damage the fan or the heating coil. Regularly changing the filters in your central air and heating system can significantly improve its efficiency and longevity.

• Flush the Water Heater

  • Particles and sediment can collect over time in the bottom of your water heater, hindering the unit's efficiency. Flush the water through the drain valve to clear out the material and keep your heater functioning at its best.

• Check Your Heating System

  • Most heating systems that break down tend to do so during the first days below freezing, but keeping up with routine maintenance can prevent untimely failures. Call a trusted, local professional for a full system tune-up to ensure it is working properly before the weather takes a turn for the worst. These services will help maximize efficiency and identify any potential issues before they manifest as expensive mechanical breakdowns.