How to Keep Your Home Safe During Winter
The winter months mean snow, ice and freezing temperatures are coming. The cold weather is perfect for staying indoors, or going skiing and sledding. However, it isn’t so perfect for making emergency repairs on your house.
Here are 4 things to do to keep your home safe this winter!
1. Test the Furnace
It is imperative to start up your heater sooner than the first cold day, to let it gradually start to warm up your home. You will likewise need to turn it on prior to ensure that it is as yet working appropriately.
Make sure to keep your heater on all through the winter, in any event, when you leave for get-away. Not exclusively will this prevent your funnels from freezing and blasting, however it will set aside you cash.
Killing the heater totally will require much more vitality to get it back fully operational when you return home, and will take a short time until your home feels warm once more.
2. Replace Window Screens
Window screens should be replaced for the coming winter months to ensure that they are not letting cold air get into the home and letting warm air escape.
Screens can also easily get damaged, whereas storm windows are solid glass and are harder for the elements to penetrate.
Storm windows are also harder for pests to get into your home though when they are looking for a warm place to take shelter in during the winter. Storm windows can also make your home more energy efficient by insulating it, which can decrease the amount of money that you have to spend on heating and electricity.
3. Check Your Water Heater
Checking your water heater to ensure it is working appropriately is something that you’ll need to do, that way you won’t be scrubbing down on a frigid day!
Nonetheless, something that is regularly overlooked is emptying the silt out of the base of your heated water storage. Dirt and debris develops bit by bit and forms a sediment at the bottom of the tank, which can break your water heater by clogging it. We suggest cleaning out the silt once every year. This will make your water heater last much more!
4. Winterize Pipes
Winterizing your funnels is one of the most significant things on your winter agenda. In the event that they are not appropriately winterized they can freeze and blast, which you probably won’t get some answers concerning until spring when the solidified channels start to defrost.
A couple of tips to avoid solidified pipes:
- Stop the outside water supply – hoses and fixtures – and afterward channel them
- Protect pipes that aren’t in a warmed area (inside) – protection tubes made of polyethylene or fiberglass work best