Top 5 Tips about Heating your Home This Winter

Heating your Home this Winter

Here is the first of a mini-series with a lot of information on heating your home more efficiently this winter. Got any tips of your own? Send us an email to callnw1923@gmail.com.

Your Top 5 Tips:

Don’t use the fan when you shower – this just sucks heat out of your home. If the steamy mirror is what bothers you – use a hair dryer to ‘dry’ the mirror streak free.
Electrical outlet covers can be removed and insulated with a piece of thin foam (much like the foam craft sheets) to prevent cold air from coming in around the edges. If you don’t think the outlets let cold air in, I challenge you to hold your hand over one on a cold day.
If your home has ceiling fans, be sure to set them in the ‘up’ clockwise position during the winter months. This allows the warm air that has collected to push to the outside walls, distributing the heat down evenly.
If you have a basement, be sure it is insulated in the cracks and crevices. While it may seem expensive to buy a roll or two of insulation, you can save hundreds of dollars per year with the investment. Get in those hard to reach places with a can of expanding insulation foam.
If you don’t have a basement or if you have a slab foundation, insulate around the base of your home with bales of hay or garbage bags full of leaves (an excellent use for the fall bounty that falls on your lawn each year). This extra barrier will help keep the wind from penetrating under your home and help fight off the winter cold. If hay or leaves are not available to you and you already have snow, shovel it up against the base of your home to create a layer of insulation.