Winterizing Tips to Fit Your Budget

As the seasons change and the cooler months loom, there are any number of suggestions for winterizing your home. Most are intended to save you energy and money; some are more long-term in nature, intended to avoid hugely expensive repairs down the line in exchange for a fraction of the maintenance costs now.

When you’re trying to stick to a tight budget, though, you need suggestions that you can afford. Here are a few from veteran home-project guru Bob Vila:

Clean All Gutters: Obviously, there’s a safety issue involved here. Don’t attempt to climb a ladder or reach out from a roof to clean any gutter unless you are confident that you are doing so safely. That said, this can be a cost-effective (read: free, if you’re doing it) way to avoid the extensive damage that can be caused by ice dams and icicles forming in and around your home’s gutter areas.

Empty the Water Heater: This can be accomplished by opening the valve near the bottom of the unit and letting the water flow out into a floor drain. The benefit of doing this is to clean out sediment and debris that can collect at the bottom of the heater over time, stealing valuable space from those precious gallons of shower water on a freezing day! Again, practice good safety habits as the water you remove could be extremely high in temperature.

Eliminate Drafts: One way to do this effectively and cheaply is by installing draft guides at the bottoms of doors, where valuable warm air can escape and invasive cool air can enter. There are many commercially available forms of door draft guards available. If you’re crafty, you might try making some of your own out of old fabric scraps. Even a rolled up towel placed at the bottom of a door can have a cost-saving effect (and, if it’s an old towel, it’s a good use of an item that might otherwise get discarded).

Have more questions about winterizing your home? Contact us here at AC World today!