When the cold of winter comes, you want to keep it outside and the heat you are generating in your home inside. However, keeping the heat in your home during winter can be challenging. The colder it is, the more difficult this job becomes. There are several ways you can accomplish this task.
Here are 7 ways to keep the heat in your home during winter, and keep the cold where it belongs, outside with the snow.
Improve your Windows
Those windows that provide that beautiful view of the outdoors can also be a path for both heat and cold. There are a number of reasons for this.
- As windows age, seals don’t work as well. Older seals simply do not hold in heat as well as newer ones do. With age, they crack and leak.
- Single pane windows are less efficient than dual pane windows. The air between two panes actually serves as insulation.
- Wooden window frames expand and contract with heat and cold. Replacing them with metal or synthetic frames can help this situation.
Often the solution is to update your windows with new ones, from the windows in your kitchen or living room to the sliding glass doors that lead to the back yard. Adding double pane windows, new seals, and better frames will save you a lot of energy.
Seal the Doors
The same thing that applies to windows applies to doors. Seals tend to shrink with the cold, as do wooden doors. Metal doors and frames do better, but seals can still dry rot, shrink, crack, and leak.
Sealing the doors can involve anything from simply replacing the seals to replacing the doors and frames themselves. Also, installing new door sweeps or purchasing the insulating bags that you can lay at the bottom of doors when they are closed will help keep the heat inside your home.
Close the Blinds
Winter can be a dark time, and it is tempting to leave the blinds open and let some light in. However, those same blinds can help keep heat in your home. Leaving them open can allow heat to leak out the windows they cover: closing them helps keep it in.
You can still use your blinds and let light in as long as you are careful when you leave them open, and that you close them at night and when you are not home. This alone can make a huge difference in your utility bills.
Close the Curtains
Blinds are good. Curtains are better. The cloth of curtains, especially light blocking and thermal insulating curtains can really help to seal your windows and keep heat inside.
These same curtains can also block sunlight and keep cooling inside during the summer as well. Using these curtains effectively year round will help stabilize the temperature in your home and the cost of controlling the environment inside.
Keep the Door Shut
Ah, the old adage your father used to shout about not heating the outside turns out to be true. Not going in and out unnecessarily, leaving the door open as little as possible, and shutting it as quickly as you can behind you all help keep the heat inside your home.
Also, don’t use doors that you don’t need to. Enter and exit through your garage, keep back doors closed, and don’t open sliding glass doors unless you need to. Try to use an entrance like your garage that keeps at least some of the heat in the house.
Check the Attic
Hot air rises, and so a lot of the lost heat in your home goes out through the roof. If you can insulate your roof more, you can keep more heat in your home. Usually an attic space, between the roof and the ceiling of your home, helps because air also serves as an insulator. However, you can also add insulation to that space to make it even more effective.
Your attic can be more than extra storage area. It can also be a place that helps keep heat in your home.
Watch Your Space
If you have a typical home, there are probably certain spaces you don’t need to heat. Walk in closets, spare rooms, and other rooms you don’t use all the time can be closed off so you are not wasting valuable energy on heating them.
Close vents in these rooms, and keep the doors closed when the room is not in use. You can even insulate the doors to those rooms to keep more of the heat from your home out of them. Remember, the key is to not heat space you don’t need to keep warm.
Winter can be a glorious and beautiful time of year, but only if you are comfortable. This means you have to keep the cold out and the heat inside your home during winter. Follow these seven methods to save money and energy on your utility bills while keeping your home the temperature you want.