Homeowners 101: How to Keep Your Home Warm this Winter
Winter home maintenance is always a necessity, even in California! Simply turning up the thermostat might not be enough to keep you warm, and can become quite costly. Instead, let’s solve the root issue. Below, we will share 4 tips to make sure your home is winter ready.
4 Essential Winter Home Maintenance Tips
Our strategy has two essential anchor points for winter home maintenance tips. These points are to keep the elements outside where they belong and keep our home snug and warm, which costs less when we do this proactively.
1. Use Thermodynamics to Your Advantage
Did you know we need far more energy to raise the inside temperature by a degree than to maintain it? This is called latent heat. Unless we are the fortunate few off the grid, this means that we may need more money to recover the situation.
It may make more sense to arrange a pre-winter HVAC inspection than having to figure out an expensive emergency call out. We cannot tell you which is best. However, if the last time you checked it was over a year ago, you could be facing a few chilly nights.
2. Check the Roof and Clear the Gutters
Your roof is the primary defense from rain and wind. Do a visual inspection for loose bargeboards, displaced tiles, and damaged shingles. Flowing water is a mighty powerful thing. It can find its way through weak defenses.
Gutters clogged with loose leaves, sticks, and old black mold from roof sheets can cause water to back up and find a way past shingles and tiles. Damp patches on a ceiling are one thing. Avoid the other by clearing the gutter line.
3. Keeping the Wind Out
A cold winter wind can radically lower body temperature. If you have leaky siding or weather-stripping, cold air comes in. The same applies if your windows and doors to not seal properly when they close. Seal any gaps you suspect with caulking and fresh weather stripping.
One way to check is with a piece of paper when there is a breeze outside. If it moves inside, then you have a gap in your defenses.
4. Have a Plan for What To Do If the Weather Strikes Hard
We have entered a phase where global warming makes weather less predictable. If you are off the grid for a few days, will you have enough stored energy to keep your home systems operating? How will you keep your home warm?
Do you have an adequate supply of drinking water and food put away? This may sound unnecessarily alarming, however, we have come through bad weather patches recently. A few hundred dollars spent on HVAC may prove a wise investment yet.
Keep Your Home Warm This Winter
Even if most of California does not have to deal with snow for months on end, it can still get plenty cold. Make sure you’re prepared this winter by reinforcing the weaker parts of your home and knowing what to expect when the cold hits. Get in touch to see how we can help you keep your home warm in the winter.
