Get Your Home Ready for the Winter

Now that winter has reared its head, the last thing you want is for your home to be unprepared. The key to keeping your energy expenses low while increasing your comfort is to winterize your property. You don’t need to spend an exorbitant amount of money in order to get your home ready for the season. Here are several home winterization tips you can use to keep money in your pockets.

Prevent Drafts

A drafty home is likely to raise your utility expenses by 30 or more percent. When you do the math, that’s a lot of money to pay to simply give away. Get rid of drafts in your home by taping plastic over your windows and placing an old blanket or towel under your doors.

Change Furnace Filter

A dirty furnace filter can shorten the lifespan of your furnace tremendously. A dirty filter can also increase the amount of work your furnace needs to do keep your home warm, thus causing a spike in your energy bills. Instead of replacing your furnace filter with a regular one which is only capable of catching 10 to 40 percent of dirt and particles, consider upgrading to an electrostatic or HEPA furnace filter. Electrostatic and HEPA filters trap 80 to 88 percent more particles which will enable your furnace to run more efficiently.

Use Your Ceiling Fans

Instead of running your ceiling fans the normal way warm air to circulate more evenly throughout the room and can reduce your energy expenses by 10 percent.

Check Your Water Heater

Check the temperature setting on your water heater. If it is set higher than 120 degrees, lower it. Unless you enjoy taking scalding hot showers and baths in which you’ll end up with serious burns, anything higher than 120 degrees can increase your water bill by as much as 20 percent.

For more home winterizing advice, give Maynard Construction a call at (615) 240-7064. We specialize in roof inspections, designs, and repairs.