Winterizing your Home to Save Money

As the weather begins to get colder, your home energy bills may begin to climb higher and higher. Heating our homes can cost us a lot if we aren't careful. That is why it is so important to take the time and spend a bit of money in order to winterize your home. This allows you to reduce the amount of heating that you need to supply and therefore reduce the cost of your winter energy bills.

Do the following things to save money by winterizing your home:

• Caulk. Stand next to your windows with the windows closed. Do you feel a cold air draft coming in through the window? If so then you're wasting energy in your home as you try to heat it. Theres a simple fix. Update the caulking around your windows to reduce the loss of energy in this part of your home.
• Clean out your fireplace. Its a great idea to use your fireplace to save money on heating costs in the winter. However it's only going to be efficient if it's clean. Clean it yourself or get a professional to clean it.
• Clean your furnace . This includes cleaning the ducts of the furnace as well as replacing the furnace filters. A clean furnace works more efficiently and saves you money.

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• Clean your homes ducts. A furnace can work perfectly well and still not properly deliver heat throughout the home if the homes ducts and vents are not clean. Make sure that you've taken care of this before you start using your heater this winter.
• Close your fireplace damper . When you are not using the fireplace, you need to make sure that the damper on it remains closed. Otherwise you're sending your heaters warm air out through the top of the house via the chimney. What a waste!
• Insulate. A home needs to be properly insulated if it's going to keep warm during the winter months. This is especially true in attics and basements so start there. You can get a professional inspection to easily determine whether or not your home insulation needs updating. Also make sure to properly insulate your appliances such as your hot water heater.
• Make sure that you have a programmable thermostat in your home . This is worth the investment because it allows you to set your home to a certain heat level so that heaters only turn on when they are actually needed. Manual thermostats tend to result in wasted money because you forget to turn them off.
• Repair any cracked windows in the home. Hopefully you don't have any of these but if you do then now is the time to make those important repairs.
• Replace the screens that you have on your windows. You should have storm windows or glass windows during the winter months. This keeps the home well heated in a way that summer window screens does not.
• Replace worn tiles or shingles on the roof of the home. This adds to the proper insulation of the home for the winter plus it gives your home a more solid roof during rough weather months.
• Reverse your ceiling fan. This allows the warm air to be drawn downward (remember that hot air rises) and increases the efficiency of your home heating system.
• Seal the area around your homes pipes. It is important to make sure that your homes heat isn't leaking out through open areas around the pipes of your home. There are sealants available at your local hardware store.
• Seal your exterior bricks. If you have a brick house then get masonry sealant and repair any cracks or leaks in the bricks of the home.
• Turn down your water heater . It probably doesn't need to be as hot as you have it. This is especially true in the winter months when you already feel chillier so slightly colder water will still feel warm. That extra heat requires electricity and costs money so stop using it up.
• Use weather stripping. Just like you need to caulk your windows you need to use weather stripping around the doors of your home. This prevents additional leakage of home heating to the outside world.

One option that will allow you to efficiently take care of most of these things is to get a home energy audit. This will rapidly show you where you are wasting energy and where repairs must be made to winterize the home.

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Posted in Home Improvement Post Date 11/05/2015