7 Tips To Help Prepare Your Home and Yourself For Winter Months
The temperature is starting to drop. The cold air has started to blow around. Winter is indeed coming which means you have to prepare your house for the harsh cold weather day and night.
Preparing your home for the winter can effectively make it cozy and comfortably warm. It can also help you save money on energy, repair and maintenance bills all throughout the winter months. If you have little to no idea on how to prepare house for the cold days and nights, the following tips and simple hacks can surely help you out.
Place kitchen tin foil behind radiators.
The tin foil placed behind the radiators will reflect the heat coming from them back into your house. This can surely help your house warm up thus saving you some money by cutting down energy usage.
Keep blinds and curtains close.
Don’t let the heat escape your home by closing blinds and curtains especially during nighttime
Use salt and warm water to unblock drains.
Unblock your drains with salt and warm water solution. It can effectively get rid of any stubborn dirt and grime that might be blocking your pipes. It can also prevent your pipe from freezing up due to extremely low temperature.
Be ready for power outage.
Have an emergency plan in case the power goes off for few hours or so. Also make sure that you have enough candles, flashlights and enough batteries too. Keep yourself updated with the news about the weather condition around your area. This can help you prepare and plan for possible power cut or brownout.
Keep your heater on low.
Don’t turn your heating system off when you are out or leaving the house. Doing this might result into frozen pipes and tanks. Just keep your central heating system on low level and open all internal doors to prevent frozen pipes.
Check your hot water supply.
Make sure that your hot water supply system is working as it should be. Take precautionary measures before the extremely low temperature arrives. Here’s a checklist that could help you test that your hot water system is working properly.
Check the boiler and see if pilot light is on. If not, follow the manual to relight it on.
Check the power connection and make sure that all switches are on.
Use a new fuse in the plug just to make sure that it will last for the duration of winter months. Also check your hot water thermostat and see if it’s already set to “high” or “max”.
Ask an expert or hire a professional to do the checking if you wanted to be sure that your hot water supply system is ok and working fine.
Check your home insurance.
Check your home insurance and see if your policy is up to date. Winter season is one of the most popular times for home insurance claims so make sure that your insurance policy is “A ok”.
Always remember that proper planning and preparation can surely help you and your house survive the harsh cold weather of winter months.
These are all great tips. It has finally started getting cold here in Louisiana so I’ll be sure to use some of your great tips.
These are truly sound tips for winter preparation esp. keeping your heating on low and putting foil behind radiators. I will be applying some to my home. thanks for sharing!
I didn’t know about the tin foil. Good to know! Thank you for the tips!
It’s important to be prepared for the winter, it can be extremely harsh to your home and your health as well. I think these are useful tips! I’m definitely bookmarking!
Now I know why so many people have tin foil near their radiators. What a great tip to keep you home warm and toasty.
I’m glad that you shared these smart tips! I’ve never thought about keeping your heater on low while you are outside also helpful.
Preparing for winter month is really important! I’m glad to know all of these.
It is always a good idea to be prepared. Never know when a hard one will hit. Thanks for the great tips!
I learned something new today, thanks to this informative post. I’m going to do the tin-foil tip. It would be great to save on energy with this simple fix.
These are great tips. I love a warm toasty house.
Some of these I knew. The tin foil trick is new to me. Thank you for sharing!
It is always a crazy winter where we live. It is good to save money when you can!
Salt and warm water to unclog a drain?! Genius! I love this post – it’s getting really cold here in NY so these are super helpful!