Winter is coming and with that there are many things you can do to make your home ready for the season.These 5 cost effective and easy tasks can lessen the damage and depreciation your home takes during Colorado's famous winters.
1. Re-caulk the windows. A $5 tube of acrylic latex caulk, a $5 caulk gun and a wet rag are the basic ingredients here. Both exterior and interior windows and doors should be done every 1-3 years. Examine the edges and seams of your windows, if you see cracks or missing chunks of old caulk, its time to seal those puppies up! Not only are you stopping moisture from getting into bad places your increasing the climate efficiency of your home.
2. Replace those filters! Furnace filters should be changes twice a year, your local hardware store should carry the filter. If your furnace is equipped with a built in humidifier it should also be changed twice a year.
3. Clean out all your HVAC ducts and dryer vent. For this job you will need to hire a professional who has the big vacuum. Its amazing how much dust and other particulates accumulate in the vents and duck work. Dryer vent fires happen more often then we think so get that birds nest out of there. Should you be lucky enough to have a wood burning fireplace then cleaning your chimney is a must.
4. Turn the direction of your ceiling fans to clockwise to create a updraft. This circulates the warm air above the fan.
5. Consider a new thermostat.There are a few models out there that have more computing power then the Apollo.A WiFi enabled thermostat can detect when you leave and knows when your coming home, adjusting the temperature automatically. Some models can detect when weather is changing and make the adjustment. These high efficiency thermostats claim a 20% reduction in heating and cooling costs a year.
Now that your home is bundled up for winter, you can relax and hit the slopes!
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