As part of your due diligence as a homeowner, it’s important to prepare your house for winter. Not only will this help keep your operational costs down in an age of skyrocketing energy prices, but it will also improve safety for you and your family. This, in turn, can benefit your home insurance costs in Calgary, as you’ll enjoy the lowest possible premiums if you never have to file an insurance claim.
Your Winter Prep Checklist
First, here’s a winter home prep checklist for you to follow:
- Seal all air leaks by adding caulking and/or weatherstripping around doors and windows, including your attic door
- Consider upgrading drafty doors and windows to sturdy, energy-efficient alternatives
- Purchase a window insulator kit and use it to add an extra level of protection around windows, which can allow a lot of heat to escape
- Have your furnace or home heating system inspected and serviced by a licensed technician
- Switch your ceiling fans to the reverse setting, as this will help warm air circulate around the room
- Insulate all exposed pipework with insulation to protect against pipe bursts, which can cause major water damage
- Remove and store all garden hoses attached to outdoor faucets
- Clean your eaves and gutters, and trim any tree branches that hang over your home’s roof
Brush Up on Best Practices for Winter Energy Savings
If your energy bills have been consistently rising for reasons other than increasing prices, you should begin by conducting a professional home energy audit to identify areas for improvement. Generally speaking, though, you can save big by using these free or inexpensive winter energy savings strategies:
- Open curtains or blinds over windows that face the sun during the day to allow sunlight to naturally heat your home
- Close these curtains or blinds when the sun goes down to help keep the warmth inside
- Purchase a programmable thermostat, and set it so it keeps your home at the lowest possible comfortable temperature during the day and cooler at night when residents are asleep
- Set your programmable thermostat to activate your heat in the early morning hours to make sure everyone wakes up to a warm house
- Reduce your water heater’s thermostat to avoid unnecessary energy expenditures, since people rarely need their water heated to maximum settings
- Switch over to LED holiday lights to help keep your Christmastime electricity costs in check
Fireplace Tips for Safety and Energy Savings
Your fireplace helps keep you warm and toasty during the winter, and it also adds an ambient touch. However, it’s essential that you follow a few important safety tips with regards to its use:
- Ensure your damper is open before you light a fire, and keep it open until all embers and ashes are fully extinguished
- Never leave children near an active fire unattended, and ensure all fires are fully extinguished before you go to bed for the night
- Start small and build up when creating a fire, as overloading the fire pit can lead to loss of flame control
- Guard the front of the fireplace with a screen or windows
- Do not add accelerants, such as gasoline or other flammable liquids, to an indoor fire (or an outdoor fire, for that matter)
- Store all flammable items and materials well away from your fireplace
- Have a trained professional clean your chimney and fireplace at least once a year
You can also set up your fireplace to support energy savings by doing the following:
- Seal cracks and gaps in the hearth with caulking
- Make sure the flue damper is tightened as much as possible
- Close the damper, unless you have a fire burning
- Lower your thermostat when you have an active fire in the fireplace
- Consider adding a heat-air exchange system that will distribute the warmth generated by the fireplace throughout the room
On the topic of fireplaces, now is also a great time to check to make sure your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors have fresh batteries and are working properly. These devices can save your life, so be sure to perform regular inspections to ensure they are fully operational.
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