Did winter sneak up on you this year? It’s not too late to winterize your home, especially since we still have a couple of months of frigid temperatures in the Northwest. Winterizing your home helps lower energy use and save you money. Here are a few tips to get you started:
- Change your furnace filter. This needs to be done every 3 months and can easily be forgotten. A clean filter not only provides your home with clean air but keeps your furnace running properly.
- Give your furnace a tune-up. Furnaces should be serviced yearly and the winter is a great time to get it done and tuned up so it works properly and uses less energy.
- Caulking and weather-stripping. Fixing the caulk and adding weather stripping to windows and doors help reduce any drafts in your home, saving you on heating costs and helping to keep your home warm and toasty. You can also use towels or DIY “draft stoppers” along the bottom of especially drafty doors.
- Wrap the windows. If you don’t already have duel-paned windows, adding a simple clear window plastic wrap can help your windows hold the heat inside the home. This product can be found at your local hardware store.
- Black out curtains. Long, thick, black-out curtains on all your windows can help keep heat inside your home.
- Check exposed duct work. Every so often critters and/or time can cause damage to your exposed duct work. Inspecting it and fixing any damage will keep everything working properly and save you money.
- Reverse the direction of your ceiling fans. This might sound crazy but counter-clockwise spinning ceiling fans create cooling breezes and clockwise spinning ceiling fans can create warming breezes. Reverse the spin and save money on heating costs.
- Move furniture off vents. This helps the vents do their job. Also, consider closing vents for any rooms not used often and keep the door closed.
- Drain hoses and turn off water spigots. This protects the integrity of your hoses and water spigots so they will be ready in the spring.
- Turn down water heaters. Most of the time you don’t need as much hot water as your water heater is heating daily. Consider turning down the temperature to a lower setting.