It can get brutally cold during the winter time, which means that you’ll be depending heavily on your heating system to stay warm. However, your home can still feel chilly due to poor insulation or older windows. Fortunately, the following are five ways to cold-proof your home in order to keep heat trapped inside and to prevent the cold from getting in:
- Use weatherstripping – Cold air may be getting into your home through the cracks around your exterior doorways. If this is the case, then adding weatherstripping around the door frame will keep cold drafts out. Weatherstripping can also be used for your windows.
- Seal leaky windows – Older windows often have a lot of leaks along the frame. If you can feel a cold draft coming in from your windows, they most likely have such leaks. You can find them by lighting an incense stick and walking around your home past all of your windows. If the smoke pulls towards the window, then you know that there is a leak. Just make sure that all fans are off and that all doors and windows are closed when you do this. Once you’ve found the leak, use caulking to seal it.
- Add window film – In some cases, the leaks around older window frames aren’t the only thing that’s causing cold air to penetrate your home. Older windows often have less energy efficient glass panes. It’s only the newer windows that make use of more energy efficient technology, such as the use of double or triple glass panes or specialized window films. You can tell if your window glass is letting in cold air by touching it to see if it’s cold. If it is, simply pick up some interior window film to cover the glass with.
- Use your curtains to your advantage – If your windows aren’t very efficient, then covering them up with curtains is an effective way to keep cold drafts out and to trap heat in. Make sure to close your curtains every night, but open them up during the day on the windows that are facing the sun. This will allow sunlight to come into your home, which will help to contribute to warming your house up.
- Use your ceiling fans – Believe it or not, but ceiling fans can be used to warm up your home. There should be a switch located on the main bodies of your fans that will reverse the direction that the blades go in. By doing this, the blades will push rising heat back down. This, in turn, will help keep your home more evenly heated, while also making your home feel warmer without actually producing more heat.
These are five ways that you can cold-proof your home. Doing so will not only help to keep your home warm and comfortable during the winter season, it will help make your home more energy-efficient, thereby allowing you to reduce your heating costs.
