With winter approaching fast, now is the best time to start preparing yourself and your home. The winter months can bring snow, ice, hail, and frost to attack your home and make it as uncomfortable as possible. There are some things that you should keep in mind before winter starts to really take hold. Here we’ll look at how to prepare your home for winter so you can have a little peace of mind.
Inspect Your Heating System
Arguably, the most important thing you should do before winter hits is to make sure that your heating system is ready to go. Changing your filters is the absolute minimum that you need to do to make sure everything is running smoothly, but you may also want to call an HVAC contractor to inspect it. If you really want a better heating system, you could try upgrading to something like a mini-split system instead.
Keep Your Windows Insulated
So much of that lovely heat can escape quickly if you have gaps in your windows. The cold drafts of winter can drive up your heating bill as it works harder to compensate. You can fix this easily by inspecting your windows for any cracks or openings around the edges and then plugging them with either caulking or weather stripping.
Clean Your Gutters
If you’ve neglected to do this for your home throughout autumn, you’ll want to do this sooner rather than later. Clogged gutters are very bad for your home’s drainage, and all that snow accumulating and then melting is not going to help. Forgetting to do this can lead to all that water entering your house another way, and that is the last thing you want to deal with in the middle of winter.
Test Your Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detectors
With the heat blasting and fires burning in fireplaces, it’s no surprise that winter is a big season for accidental fires. Make sure you test your smoke alarm to keep yourself and your family safe. The reason you also want to check on your carbon monoxide detector is that you’re likely to lock your home up tight during the winter. This means that if you do have a carbon monoxide problem, it won’t be able to escape your house in any way.
Shut Down Outside Water
If you don’t want to deal with an icy mess or a burst pipe, it pays to take care of any water that goes outside. If you have a pool, you should obviously drain it. Make sure that you shut down your sprinkler system as well. If you have any outdoor faucets, it’s important that you shut them down and drain them before they get frozen over.
Now that you know how to prepare your home for winter, you can enjoy your well-heated home cozied up with your hot drink of choice. A little forethought goes a long way to keeping your home working smoothly in any season.
