It’s not too late to winterize your home and make sure you’re not driving your power bill up, or worse, that you might have a safety issue! If you have an older home, it may be time to update your home with better, more efficient technology. Of course, if you build a home in Asheville with Bellwether Design-Build, we are sure to use the latest and greatest technology to build a well insulated and energy-efficient house!
Here are some tips that you can use to winterize your home:
- Cheap trick: Plug those drafty doors with a draft guard!
- The better solution is to make sure you have quality storm doors
- Cheap trick: Add window insulation film to your windows
- The better option is to replace old windows with energy efficient storm windows, in particular low-emissivity (low-e) windows.
- Here are 5 steps for making your windows more energy efficient
- Weather-stripping and caulking can also help seal up those pesky drafts
- Check for bigger gaps such as loose roof shingles, chimney or foundation issues or any large holes that could leave you with bigger air leaks.
- Have your fireplace checked to make sure that it’s clean and safe.
- If you’re not using your fireplace, your chimney is drafty too. Have a pro install a quality damper or a chimney balloon to help block the draft.
- Make sure your carbon monoxide detectors are working and have fresh batteries
- Add more insulation. Make sure your attic floor and basement ceiling are well insulated
- Make sure your attic hatch or pull down stairs are well insulated
- Clean your gutters to allow for more water flow and less ice build-up
- Clean up dead tree limbs that are close to your house or property. You don’t want a large limb falling on your home or car during a winter storm!
- Change your air filters so that your HVAC system can function more efficiently and to the best of its ability
- Have an HVAC contractor perform a checkup on your HVAC unit once a year. Also have them test and seal your ducts.
- Shut off the AC unit water valve to prevent water from collecting and freezing in there. Same thing if you have a sprinkler system…
- Reverse your fans so that the warm air is blown back down from the ceiling
- Insulate your water heater and your pipes! Insulating your pipes can help save you money and help ensure that your pipes don’t burst, which would be a big bummer.
- If the temperature of your pipes drops below 32 degrees, it could cause a fracture.
- Know where your main waterline shut-off valve is, in case of an emergency!
- Shut off outside water spigots and disconnect hoses.
- Turn down your water heater
- We love tankless water heaters or even solar-powered!
- Lower your thermostat (even just a smidge will save you money!)
- Get out your blankets, socks and sweatshirts and bundle up rather than turning on up the heat
- Get a programmable thermostat to make it easy