Winter is Coming: How to Prepare Your Home
Florida’s winters may not be nearly as brutal as those in the Northeast, but there are still several things you can do to protect your house and keep it cozy year round.
- Weatherproof doors and windows
Even a small amount of cold air coming in through doors and window frames can seriously affect your utility costs. You can find those leaks fairly easily by having someone blow air from a hair dryer through suspicious gaps while you hold a candle along the inside of window and door frames. If the flame flickers, there’s a draft.
There are several cheap options for sealing those gaps: You can install draft guards under doors, caulk windows, or apply weatherstripping tape. Each of these options should cost less than $20 in supplies.
- Reverse your fan blades
Ceiling fans can help distribute heat throughout your home in the winter. Simply locate the direction switch on your fan’s motor housing and flip it so that the fan blades run clockwise.
And while you’ve got your ladder out, go ahead and change the batteries in the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors — another important (and potentially lifesaving) task that should be done twice a year.
- Get rid of the gunk
Sometimes, you have to get your hands a little dirty. Now is a good time to clean or replace your furnace filters, since dirty filters restrict airflow and increase energy demand. Popular Mechanics recommends doing this about once a month during the winter.
No one enjoys cleaning gutters (myself included), but clogged gutters can cause water damage to your roof, detach under extra weight and leak water into your home. Make sure they’re cleared of leaves and other debris before temperatures start to dip below freezing.
- Protect your pipes
Frozen, burst pipes are more common in another regions, but Florida does occasionally get hit with a winter storm or sudden freeze that can wreak havoc if homeowners aren’t prepared. Since we live in a warmer climate, the pipes in our homes — especially older ones — often aren’t buried very deep underground and are not effectively insulated against freezing temperatures.
If you aren’t sure about the state of your plumbing system, it’s a good idea to have those pipes professionally inspected. And if you know a freeze is on the way, you can also insulate them by wrapping them with electrical tape so they don’t burst overnight.
