7 Simple ways to Winterize Your Home

Happy Thanksgiving!

With the colder weather coming sooner rather than later this year so will the bills becoming as well. Let's look at some ways to save money and get your home ready for the winter than is to come.

1. Reverse Your Ceiling Fans - Many folks use their ceiling fans in the summer to help cool their homes and keep the bills down associated with Air Conditioning but did you know that you can switch the direction of your ceiling fan to help circulate air in your home and thus make the bills go down. A little button on the motor portion of your fan can be flipped and the fan will reverse direction and suck air up and push it out, helping to warm the room in less time. This is really helpful in homes that have very large ceilings. Recommendation: Run fans at the slowest speed to prevent a draft
2. Unhook Water Hoses from Your Home - This one seems like common sense right? However, many homeowners fail to unhook their hoses and it causes damage. Winter brings cold, cold brings ice, ice expands and causes big problems. So in order to not have major plumbing problems or buying a new hose every year, take if off the spigot and blow the hose out with compressed air. You can also use a grade and let the water drain out with the help of gravity. Either way is cheaper than paying a plumber to fix a busted pipe or worse water damage.
3. Put on Storm Windows and Doors - Replace or let down your storm windows and storm doors. When these items are in place it creates an additional barrier between your homes doors and windows (openings) and the weather. This can be a real saver in the winter and energy.gov says you may see up to 45% savings in heating bills.
4. Install Weather Stripping and Door Sweeps - Inspect and see if the weather strip is rotten on all doors and windows. If it is replace it with the new Styrofoam weather strip available at your local box hardware store. Put door sweeps on all exterior doors to keep the draft from entering under the door jam. Also consider completely sealing off rooms that you don't use to prevent the cold from entering the used living space.
5. Call an HVAC Technician to Check your Furnace System - It doesn't matter how much weatherproofing you do in your home to save money if your furnace isn't running at it's peak efficiency. Maintaining and prepping your system for the winter is a great strategy to keep your system running at a high level and help you save more money. Also, replace your filter often in the winter every two months is ideal but every month would be better. (Recommendation: You should also have the HVAC guy check your A/C unit as well and make sure it won't be susceptible to the elements)
6. Clean the Gutters - Rid your gutters of leaves and other debris that has built up during the summer and fall to prevent ice dams. These dams will form when snow and ice come and they will form at the end of the gutter allowing water to pool up and eventually will lead to leaks and water damage, not to mention the possibility of ripping the gutters off your home.
7. Flush Your Water Heater - Many people don't realize that water heaters need to be drained annually to help maintain capacity and efficiency. A bunch of sediment builds up in the bottom and needs to be cleaned out. Plus, you need the hot water to take a nice bath after shoveling all that snow all day.

Bonus: 

• Lawn Mower Weatherization - When the mowing season is over some of us get in a bad habit of just putting that mower back into storage without doing anything to it for the winter. While you can get away with this, it really isn't good for the mower to treat it this way. Here are some tips on how you can put your mower up for the winter.
• Run Your Machine Out of Fuel - With today's bio-blended fuels leaving gasoline in the gas tank over the winter will cause it to become volatile and turn into "varnish". Run your lawn mower out of fuel and put it away for the winter. There is another option especially for those that have riding lawnmowers and that is use a product like "Sta-bil" to help stabilize the fuel for the winter, but make sure it is formulated for Ethanol blended fuels.
• Change the Oil - Before you put away your mower you should go ahead and change the oil in the motor. This prevents leaving that dirty oil in for the winter and also gets you ready to go next spring when the grass needs to be cut. 
• Sharpen the Blades - On the same principle as changing the oil, why not do it before you put it away to prevent you from having to do that when the grass starts to look shaggy in late March. Remember that if you use an electric grinder to maintain the proper angle for adequate cutting or else you will have a poorly cut project. Some dealerships will sharpen blades for $5 a piece.
• Clean the Grass Clipping from Under the Deck - One maintenance issue on lawn care equipment that people forget is to clean the grass residue that is collected under the deck. If you keep this machine indoors you will know why this important to do so. The smell and the mold that builds on the wet residue is bad for you and it is really avoidable. Also the performance of the machine will be effected because it won't be able to discharge grass clipping adequately because of blocked passages in the deck and the grass' acid will eat away at the deck eventually causing a need for replacement. Cleaning isn't hard, just find a large scraper blade and jack your mower up to get easy access to clean off the clumps. You can also use a water hose but remember that you need to be careful not to rust out the bearings and other things under the deck. 

There are many other things you can do to weatherize your home for adverse conditions like caulking around windows and doors on the outside to placing wrap around your pipes in the basement or crawl spaces. Always be on the lookout for ways to make your home more efficient and you might just find a easy way to save your money.