Winter is quickly approaching and folks all over the country are seeing their first snow and ice storms of the season. Along with making sure your tires are properly inflated, getting out the shovel and salt, you must also take steps to winterize your home. Here are some simple tips to reduce the heat loss in your home this winter.

Properly insulate your home to keep the heat in

One of the biggest ways you can lose heat is by not having a home that’s properly insulated. You can lose heat through the ceiling, attic, walls, and floors. This is caused by heat traveling toward colder temperatures – which results in warmed interior air looking for the cooler exterior air. If you don’t have great insulation, this process is sped up. To prevent these issues, concentrate on insulating these areas:

• Attic insulation can be the most important because there’s so much eat to be lost. Also ensure you’re insulating the attic access hatch.
• Exterior walls can be professionally blow with extra insulation.
• Any floor over an unconditioned area, like over your garage, should be insulated.
• Ductwork, especially in unconditioned areas like crawl spaces, should be insulated.

Reduce leaks

Heat can escape via any exit that leads to the exterior of your home. Looking for leaks by walking around and visually inspecting around pipes and ductwork where they enter your home. This includes windows, door frames, fireplace dampers, and flues. You might also check for nonvisible leaks, like drafts coming from baseboards, by holding sticks of lit incense near the areas you suspect may be leaking area. You can also contact an HVAC contractor to do an air leak test. Other tips to reduce leaks include:

• Close your fireplace dampers whenever you’re not using your fireplace.
• Winterize flues, windows, and doors with caulk, weather stripping, or foam sealant.
• Seal skylights and any other openings to your floors, roof, and exterior walls.

While these great tips will help you retain heat during the cool months, remember that they’ll also be helpful when summer comes along. AC-World offers many solutions to all your air conditioning needs and anything you do to trap heat in, and prevent it from leaking out, will be worth it in summer when you keep your cool air in too.