Home Heating Tips – Part 4

Heating your home this winter – Part 4

Our final set of tips for your home heating needs. We hope you have enjoyed these tips – keep warm!

  1. Outdoor water supplies/pipes: Unless outdoor water facets are properly insulated or specifically designer for year-round use, the water supply to them needs to be shut off and the fixtures opened and properly drained before freezing temperatures set in. Similarly, in-ground irrigation systems for lawns and landscaping need to be fully drained to avoid freezing. Carefully check and properly insulate any exposed pipes in crawl spaces and along exterior walls of the home. A burst water pipe caused by freezing is expensive to repair, but often it’s only the beginning in terms of the total cost of repairing the resulting water damage.
  2. Bundle up! Running around in shorts and a tank top in the middle of winter just doesn’t make much sense. Winter is winter because it is cold, act like it even if you’re just sitting around the house. Put on a sweater or sweatshirt, wear socks and fuzzy slippers. Please a soft, comfy blanket on the couch to cuddle up while watching TV, reading or chatting with friends. Put throw rugs on hardwood and tile floors to eliminate the shock of the ice cold surfaces. It doesn’t cost anything to wear warmer clothes inside and by doing so you can keep the temperature inside the house a few degrees cooler and save big.
  3. After baking cookies or making dinner in the oven, leave the door open a crack. There’s a lot of heat in that oven, so letting it escape puts the heat to good use by warming up the kitchen and surrounding rooms meaning the furnace has to run a little bit less.
  4. Close any vents going to rooms that are not used regularly. That guest room that sits empty when you don’t have any guests? Close the door and the vents. Doing so can easily cut 100-200 square feet off your energy footprint.
  5. The best defense against heating problems is to make sure your system is maintained year-round. Having your heating equipment serviced by a reputable company at least once a year could reduce your home heating bill and prevent costly repairs and replacements in the future.