How to Winterize Your Home

As the cold winter approaches us, we grow more and more concerned about energy usage in our homes. Many like to be assured that as natural gas prices increase, they are doing everything in their power to conserve resources and use less natural gas for home heating. Though most of us can not control the price of natural gas, there are many ways in which we can reduce the amount of natural gas that we use. The reduction of natural gas consumption provides us with lower gas bills.

Reducing your usage of natural gas in your home can be as simple as turning down the thermostat. If you reduce the temperature level on your thermostat during the sleeping hours you will save money on natural gas. The easiest way to adjust your thermostat nightly is to purchase a programmable thermostat. These thermostats allow you to input settings based on the time of day. For example, you could set your heat to72 degrees during the day times hours when you are home, and set the heat to 65 degrees at night while you are sleeping. Furthermore, many of the programmable thermostats also have settings for when you may be away from home on a daily basis, and they also have settings for vacations. Programmable thermostats are inexpensive and allow you to save a considerable amount of money on your heating bill if used properly.

Another way to save money on heating is by thoroughly sealing your house. This option may be time consuming, but is not costly and is well worth it. To seal your home you will need to purchase caulk, weather-stripping for you exterior doors, and expanding foam sealant for windows and power outlets.

Begin sealing your house by checking all of the windows in your home for leaks around the perimeter. If you see a gap in the caulk or you can feel air penetrating, then you will need to fix the problem. Apply a bead of caulk to the problem areas. Allow them to dry thoroughly and recheck for any additional leaks.

Now check the exterior doors. Close the door tightly and look for any light penetration around the perimeter. If light is penetrating, than air is too. Examine the weather stripping around the door, pay particular attention to the areas that you saw light come through. If the weather stripping looks old or is incomplete, replace it completely. If the weather stripping is intact, but light still enters, consider adding additional weather stripping to cover the gap. The weather stripping self adheres and can be cut to size and shape.

Finally, we will turn our attention to the power outlets on the inside of your home that are located on exterior walls. If you feel the area of the wall around these power outlets, you will notice that it is significantly colder than surrounding wall areas. This is due to the fact that the insulation was removed in this area to make installing the outlets easier. We can easily fix this problem. Begin by removing the faceplate on the problem outlets. You should now see the outlet box. Look for any accessible holes in the back of the box. There should be holes that allow the wires to enter. Take your bottle of expanding foam and attach the spray tube to the end. Feed this tube fully through the opening in the outlet box and give the trigger a squeeze for a few second. Don’t overdue it because the foam will expand and fill the gaps. Once you have completed the spraying of the foam, put the faceplate back on.

You have now completely sealed your home on a budget. The total cost for supplies used for this project should have been well under $100 with the majority of that budget being used for the programmable thermostat.

With a sealed home, you will save money on your heating and cooling bills. You will also enjoy the benefits of having a less drafty home and knowing that you are not wasting money.