A big part of preparing to transition your home for fall and winter is weatherproofing. But, with all the fun activities and holidays that take place during this time, it’s easy to forget this important step. You should know that winter is utility bills, and implementations that will help weatherproof your home don’t have to break the bank. Let’s go through a list of some of the best inexpensive ways to weatherproof your home.
Cover your water tank with a water heater-insulating blanket
During the winter, your water heater usually loses a lot of its heat by simply trying to compete with the cold outside. And just like you, it can definitely benefit from being covered by a blanket to help preserve its heat. Insulating your water heater will reduce heat loss by 30 to 40 percent.
One very important thing to note, however, is that this can’t be done with just any blanket. A regular one you would use to cover yourself up will pose a fire hazard if you use it on your heater. For this, there are specialized water heater insulating blankets. So if you are going to do this, please remember to do it the right way and invest in an insulating blanket. They truly are one of the most inexpensive ways to weatherproof your home. And when you compare it to the amount of money it will help you save on your utility bills, you’ll quickly see that it is an investment with a positive ROI.
Weatherproof your door and window frames
Right after your home is heated from the inside, your next consideration should be how the cold gets in from the outside. The first part of this is checking out your doors and windows. Your doors and windows can cause problems during colder months in two main ways. Firstly, they can let the warm air out. And secondly, they can let the cold air in. Proper caulking and weatherstripping are crucial here. And especially when you’re weatherproofing old windows. Not only are the materials for this pretty inexpensive, but the results will also save you money on your heating bill. An added bonus is that it’s also a lot more energy-efficient to keep all that heat. So, you’re, in turn, being greener.
Pro tip
A great and inexpensive low-tech trick that you can use to figure out problem areas is to use a candle. All you have to do is light it and slowly move it around the door and window frames. Wherever the candle flame flickers, you can know that there’s some cold air leaking in.
Check storm windows if you have them
Storm windows are one of the best inexpensive ways to weatherproof your home. They keep it warm in the winter and cool in the summer. If you already have them installed, call a professional to check how they’re doing and whether their weatherproofing materials are in working order. If your home doesn’t already have them installed, you can skip over this piece of advice for now. Storm windows are not a necessity. But if you ever save up some cash and want to get them, it’s definitely a valuable investment.
Add honeycomb cellular shades
Honeycomb cellular shades are an excellent option for weatherproofing your home in an inexpensive way during the summer. If you live in an area with extreme heat during parts of the year, this is the best choice for you. Whenever the rays of sunlight get too harsh, you can pull them down and protect yourself and your home from overheating. And in the evening, you can open them to let as much sunlight in as you can before nightfall.
Get a smart thermostat
Whether you’re heating your home in the winter or cooling the air in the summer, an HVAC system uses a lot of energy and drives up the utility bill. Investing in a smart thermostat can be a life changer. These devices not only control and adjust the heating/cooling of the home in accordance with your wishes. They also learn from your patterns of behavior and program themselves to accommodate the perfect temperature for you at all times.
This means that if you want your home to be at a specific temperature, a smart thermostat will heat the home to the temperature and then turn off the heating system until it realizes that your home has cooled down, at which point it will turn the heating on again. This passively saves you energy and money over time. This is also a great investment in terms of your home value. Experts from Brooklyn Movers New York suggest that people are more likely to move to a new home with a smart or programmable thermostat.
Create a door draft stopper
One of the most inexpensive ways to weatherproof your home is to create a door draft stopper. We’ve already discussed how small openings and holes in your door frame can contribute to your home losing heat. If you have a knack for sewing, you can make your own door draft stopper, or you can always buy one for about $10. This is a great way to make your home heating more green and save some money in a very cheap way.
If you want to make your own, you’ll need some fabric, thread, and uncooked rice. You can shape the material into a cylinder and then fill it with rice. Then just place it at the foot of the door from the inside
The same goes for buying one. If you don’t know your way around a sewing machine, you can get a pretty cheap door draft stopper at the store. Just put it at the foot of the door, and it’ll stop any draft from coming in through the bottom of the frame. You should place one at each door that leads outside the house.
Final thoughts
As you can see, there are many excellent, effective, and inexpensive ways to weatherproof your home. As long as you budget properly and are mindful of your spending, you can have warm winters and cool summers without having to break the bank. And just like in the example we gave with the difference between a normal and a specialized blanket for your water heater, frugality is great, and what you can do by yourself, you should, but safety always has to come first.
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