How To Winterproof Your Home This Winter, And Moving Forward
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In Britain, as in most of the Northern hemisphere, we’re getting ready to bid farewell to those lazy, languid days of summer as we prepare to usher in the welcome mat for Jack Frost & Co. It is rather safe to say however, that our weather forecasters have not exactly been playing along with us of late and all predictions are that we can look forward to hotter summers but much more severe winters, too and that means that it’s time to do a quick check on your house to make sure that you home isn’t just winterproof against the cold, but that it’s well maintained and insulated to save you some money as well.
INSULATION MATTERS
Let’s start the beginning shall we? In this post you’re going to learn all about some easy and cost-effective methods of saving heat and distributing it more efficiently, but if you have not done so yet – then you need to start thinking about how to insulate your home. Plan for it, budget for it and by next winter you’ll be nice and toasty, and cooler in the summer too and it can save you money over a longer period as well and it could potentially add some value to your home as well. If you’re on a budget in the meantime, then think about cutting off an appropriately sized piece of tinfoil to stick on the wall behind your radiator, this will prevent heat escaping and redirect it back into your house.
KEEP YOUR CURTAINS, DRAPES AND BLINDS SHUT
As soon as they turn the clocks back, this is the time to start with this practice. From around 15:00, close your curtains, drapes and blinds and they will trap in whatever heat you’ve managed to accumulate during the day, and help prevent loss. Also, make sure that your curtains are lined for double the effect. If you have aluminium blinds, then closing them a little earlier will help them keep spaces warmer too.
DRAUGHTY MUCH?
Walk around your living areas, bedrooms and attics if you have them and double check that all areas that are around the doors, windows or other areas that are could let in cold air, are properly sealed off. You can save an astounding amount of energy this way and it’s a great hack for when budget is a concern. If you can’t yet afford anything too “fancy”, simply covering the areas under your doors in the evenings when there’s low traffic will achieve the same thing.
LET IS SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW
If you live in the snowier parts of Britain, then you should also by now know what a difference unkepts walkways or areas close to doors and windows can have on maintaining your homes heating. Clear away areas under windows, walkways that lead to doors and if you have the resources, invest in a “snow blower” or if you already have one, dust it off and check if it’s in good working order before the winter as you may need snow blower replacement parts. In the cracks in between paving, water can freeze and this can also cause accidents as well as damage, so it’s a pretty good idea to stay on top of this.
INSULATING YOUR BOILER
That might sounds like a contradiction but it makes perfect sense. If you think of how your boiler works, it needs a certain amount of heat to, well…boil. If you can preserve as much of that heat as possible, then you’ll also save some money. You can buy boiler jackets from many different outlets and the look pretty cute too. You can also insulate exposed water pipes as well.
FLOORS
If you’re lucky enough to live in an older British home, then your floorboards may be suspended and this means that you could have spaces between the timber where a huge amount of heat can escape. So insulting between these spaces will make a very big difference to your heat preserving efforts.
THE BEST WINTER ADVICE BY FAR
Of course, when all is said and done, the best advice for keeping warm this winter and into the future, is by getting everyone into the living room, flooding the space with blankets, hot chocolate and movies but making a few small changes as and when you can make them creates an astounding difference and with greater focus being placed on energy conservation, winterproofing your home doesn’t just make sound financial sense, but if everyone does what they can do, small differences amount to big changes overall.
My name is Louise and I am the Digital Marketing and Administrative Assistant at MyBump2Baby. I have been writing in the parenting niche for over 2 years specialising in fertility, pregnancy, baby and baby name support articles.