As the cold weather approaches, five winter home improvement tips can help you cut your energy costs significantly. Just as you are beginning to feel a reprieve from the summer cooling bill, the heating bill takes over.
While winter is always a great time to get indoor work done: painting, cord cutting, flooring, or well pumps, even garage door repairs and working on your car’s exhaust system, it is also a good time to cut down on energy costs. Even if you have enough firewood for the winter, you will want to keep that hear indoors.
If you want to put a dent in your monthly costs and help the environment by being more “green”, doing these five winter home improvement things will slow down the cold air from coming in while keeping the warm air indoors where you want it.
Five Winter Home Improvement TIps
These five winter home improvement tips will help you to cut your monthly energy bills by keeping the warm air in and the cold air out. Doing an energy audit is the best way to identify where you are losing the most heat. To cut the amount of waste and to stop drafts from emptying your home of energy and your wallet of money, do these five winter home improvement tips around the house and you will see an immediate and substantial difference.
Seal your walls.
Most of the way that energy is wasted in your home is by escaping through the walls. One of the best winter home improvement tips is to seal your walls. That can be done by using nothing more than an inexpensive can of caulk. If you aren’t sure where the air is making its way out, then it is best to use an infrared thermometer. It can check the walls of your home to pinpoint any heat changes. The likely culprit energy wasters to look for are the switches and plugs where the drywall has been cut. If you remove the faceplates and seal behind them, it will make a significant difference to keeping the warm air in and the cold air outside. Before performing this tip, make sure to trip the breaker when working around any electrical wires.
Add insulation.
If you have an older home, then your may want to consider re-insulating the attic. A lot of the warmth of a house can escape through an attic that doesn’t have the proper insulation. New and better products can significantly cut down on your energy costs by making sure that air isn’t flying out of the roof. Also, if you have walls that weren’t insulted properly, contractors have new ways to add insulation without having to rip out the drywall or plaster. A great way to make sure that the walls aren’t leaking air, it doesn’t have to mean a mess or a huge expense. But, it is one of the best winter home improvement tips to cut costs.
Fill gaps in the insulation.
There are likely places like outside faucets and plumbing and air vents where large gaps exist that are allowing heat to escape from your home. To fill up the gaps, use insulation. One of the most essential winter home improvement tips is to seal any of the places that you can find. Be careful not to seal anything that is next to a gas flue, however, or you could be putting your house at risk of fire.
Seal your doors.
Gaps in doors can allow heat to flow right out the door, literally. Making sure to seal all the gaps in your exterior doors is one of the best winter home improvement tips that can make a huge difference on your energy budget year round.
Tend to your gutters and roof.
If it has been a while since you have had your roof and gutters checked, it may be time to have a professional roofing company come and inspect them. The roof is one of the major places where heat can escape a home. If your roof is nearing the end of its lifespan, it may make sense to replace it altogether. It might be one of the more costly winter home improvement tips. But, in the long run, it will save you a lot throughout the year. Also, if there are gaps around your gutters and soffits, it can be an air sieve. Make sure that you caulk around the gutters to cover up any gaps where air may be leaking. Additionally, make sure that the trees around your property aren’t ready to fall on your roof. If they are, you might want to call a tree service.
The best winter home improvement tips involve looking around your house and finding ways that air is both entering and escaping. Closing gaps, insulating efficiently and stopping any places where you are letting energy pour out the window, literally, is the best winter home improvement tips there are to cut your energy costs and have a warm winter season this year.