It’s vital to keep your home warm in winter. Without preparing properly for the colder months of the year, you and your family members can suffer from a wide range of health conditions. In more extreme circumstances, there can be even more serious consequences. Everyone wants to live in a comfortable home where they don’t have to worry about the cold conditions outside. A warm home is also a welcoming place, especially when you invite friends and family members over during the holiday season. These are some simple ways to keep your home warm this winter.
Insulation and Seal Air Leaks
Many people worry about generating heat in the home. However, they don’t take into account the various ways a home can lose heat. Poorly insulated attics, walls, windows and doors all contribute to serious heat loss in a home. Investing in attic insulation is the first step to addressing this problem. Other features of your home may have air leaks, so it’s important to fill these leaks, too.
Another great option is a radiant heat panel, which provides efficient and comfortable heat distribution throughout your home. A radiant heat panel is a type of heating system that emits infrared radiation to heat objects and surfaces in a room. It works by transferring heat directly to the people and objects in its path rather than just heating the air in the room.
Use Common Sense
The most effective ways to keep your home warm are often the simplest. Keeping doors closed, keeping fires on, keeping windows closed, closing curtains and adding draft excluders to doors are just some of the easy ways you can stay warm and retain heat in your home.
Make Sure You Have Efficient Radiators
In some homes, radiators are not needed until the winter months. Make sure each radiator in your home is working properly. Sometimes older radiators may not be as efficient as they should be and this could result in less heat being omitted.
If this is the case, you may need to replace these radiators with newer models. If you think the heat is escaping behind each radiator, you can add radiator foil or aluminium foil from the kitchen to the back of the radiator.
In other situations, your radiators may be working correctly. However, the heat they generate gets blocked. This can be caused by placing items in front of a radiator. Other people place clothing on top of radiators which also stops heat from circulating in a room.
Clean Chimney’s, Stoves and Fireplaces
It may sound obvious but an efficient heating system increases the amount of heat in a home. If you have a solid fuel heating system, it’s vital to keep all of the main components of this system well-maintained.
Chimneys, stoves and fireplaces should all be cleaned on a regular basis. If you think there’s a problem, you can call chimney and stove service professionals who have the technology to check these components and let you know if any serious problems exist. Once these parts of your heating system are fixed and cleaned, you should notice much more heat in the home.
In other homes, you may use a furnace. These heating systems also need to be maintained or replaced. Once again, professional heating service providers will advise you on whether or not to repair, tune up or replace your existing furnace and heating system. Furnaces are a great option for those aiming to save money on their heating, but only if they are installed correctly. For this reason alone, it’s important to contact a company like Summers Plumbing Heating and Cooling (summersphc.com/lafayette/services/heating/furnace-installation/) to correctly install your furnace. A damaged or incorrectly fitted furnace can cause money and heat loss, alongside running the risk of carbon monoxide being exposed into the home.
Use Ceiling Fans
Many homeowners only use ceiling fans when it’s warm outside. However, many ceiling fans have a winter setting too. This allows warm air to circulate throughout your home rather than staying in one part of your home.
Let the Sun Naturally Heat Your Home
The sun is the greatest heat generator of them all. Even in winter, the sun shining into your home can keep it warm. Many people are not in their homes during the day and forget to turn this fact to their advantage. While they’re away from home, many homeowners keep curtains and blinds closed. This prevents sunlight from entering your home during the day, and your home stays cooler. Where possible, let the sunshine into as many rooms as you can.
Use Timers or Programmable Thermostats
Many homes need to be heated at certain intervals during the day. If there’s nobody at home during the day, it’s impossible to do this manually. However, a range of heating system timers and programmable thermostats are available that automatically turn on your heating at certain times of the day. This mean you can walk into a warm home after a long day’s work without leaving the heating on all day.
Keeping your home warm in winter is one of the main considerations of a homeowner at this time of year. A warm home is a comfortable home. The tips above are some simple ways to ensure that your home generates and retains as much heat as possible and doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg in the process.
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It’s already that time of year again. This is small, but we use thicker drapes on our sliding glass windows during the winter. This tends to help keep our living room a little warmer when the sun isn’t shining.
Yes that’s a great idea, I have just added a curtain over our front door to keep drafts to a minimum.