How To Stop Your Home From Getting Too Cold
If you’re at home, you want to be comfortable. That’s not even something anyone would want to question – discomfort is never something you should stand for. When you consider what makes a home comfortable, you might think about good lighting, soft furniture, plush flooring, and having all your bits and pieces around you, arranged exactly how you want, but there’s something else you’ll need to consider, and make sure you get right if you truly want to be comfortable and until you do, it won’t make a difference what else you put in place – you’ll never be one hundred perfect comfortable.
What is that one thing?
It’s the temperature of your home.
If your home is too hot or too cold, it won’t matter how great everything else is, as you’re not going to want to spend time there, and you’re not going to feel comfortable. The good news is there are things you can do to stop your house from getting too hot and too cold, and it’s worth learning about the things you need to do to ensure you can be totally comfortable.
In this post, shared by a guest author, we’ll just focus on staying warm because there’s more you can do and because getting too cold is such a potentially nasty thing for your health. With that in mind, keep reading to find out more about how to stop your home from getting too cold, and you might be surprised at the easy measures you can put in place to get comfortable and stay that way.
Check Your Furnace
If your home is generally heated through the use of a furnace, that’s a good place to start if you’re getting too cold. It might be that your furnace isn’t working properly, and although you think you’re heating your home, the truth is that the furnace isn’t actually doing its job, and all you’re really doing is wasting money and energy, and the temperature of your home stays far lower than you want it to.
If that feels as though it might be the case, and your furnace is the cause of all your discomfort, then it’s definitely worth checking it out. Firstly, look at where your thermostat is set and then feel if your radiators are heating up – if there’s a big disparity between the heat you can feel and the temperature you’ve set things to, then there’s probably an issue. And of course, if the heating isn’t coming on at all, there’s definitely an issue.
The best course of action if your furnace isn’t working as it’s meant to is to contact professionals who can carry out furnace repair. They’ll be able to check the appliance over and test it to see what’s wrong, and to make sure it’s safe. Then, once they’ve investigated, they’ll be able to make the necessary repairs or advise you about what to do next – remember, a furnace only has a finite lifespan, so at some point, it may be best to just replace it entirely with a much more efficient one.
As tempting as it might be to carry out these repairs yourself, it’s not wise. There are a lot of moving parts in a furnace, and unless you know exactly what you’re doing, you might find that your efforts to put things right make things go wrong. It could even cause your furnace to become dangerous, putting you and your family at risk. It’s not worth the trouble and expense, which is why calling experts as soon as possible is a much better option.
What’s Your Insulation Like?
If your furnace is working well and you’re still finding your home is uncomfortably cold, there’s clearly another issue to deal with, and it might be your insulation.
Every home needs to be well-insulated as that means the heat stays inside and doesn’t escape through the walls, windows, doors, and roof, leaving you in a cold home while you’re paying for the energy that’s quickly disappearing. Not only is that expensive, but it’s bad for the environment, and it means you’re going to be cold, which we know isn’t particularly nice! As an extra piece of information, you’ll also want your home to be well-insulated during the warmer months, as that insulation will prevent heat from entering the home from outside, keeping you comfortable and ensuring you don’t have to use your HVAC as much.
So, is the culprit your insulation? The best way to find out is to literally have a look at it, assuming you can get to it. The issue with insulation is that it’s often behind or within walls, so you can’t see it, and getting to it means putting holes in your home. However, if you have an attic or basement, you might find that it’s out on display, and you can see it more easily, so that’s a good place to start your search.
If you don’t appear to have insulation at all, it’s time to put some in place – you’ll save a fortune when it comes to your energy bills, and your home will be much warmer in winter as a result, so you’ll be more comfortable. However, even if it looks as though you do have insulation in place, it might not be doing a good job anymore; much like anything else, over time, insulation starts to become less and less effective, so if it’s been in place for more than ten years or so, it’s certainly worth considering replacing it.
If you’re not sure what state your insulation is in, you can find experts to help you – they’ll take a sample of the insulation and check that it’s doing what it should be, and even that it’s made of safe material (some very old insulation isn’t). Then, you can make a decision about your next steps once you have all the information.
Seal Gaps And Cracks
You have got a ton of cracks in and around your home, and that’s a fact. We can say that for sure because every property has gaps and cracks in and around it, and the older the property is, the more of them it will have (and they might be bigger too). Even brand-new properties will have some areas where the cold air from outside can easily get in, and the warm air that you’re heating inside can get out, and that’s not a combination you really want if you want to be comfortable and plan on stopping your house from getting too cold.
Just taking a quick glance around the interior of your home, as well as popping outside to look briefly at the exterior, is only going to show you cracks and gaps if they’re massive and clearly noticeable, and if that’s the case, you’ve probably already spotted them before going on a hunt for them. That’s why it’s important to take your time and look carefully to see where those gaps and cracks actually are.
Sometimes it’s easier to feel where they are as they can be very small. Hold your hand close to window and door frames (this is a great place to start, as it’s likely there are gaps and cracks there), and if you can feel even the slightest breeze, there’s an issue that needs dealing with.
Once you know where the gaps and cracks are, take some caulk or other sealing material and seal them all up. This isn’t a job you need to call an expert for, and you should be able to find all the tools and materials you need at your local hardware store. However, what you will need to do is be careful and take your time; if you rush, you might miss something or find that the work you put in hasn’t actually stopped the drafts after all.
Use Curtains And Blinds
Those pesky windows really can cause a lot of bother when it comes to drafts, and even if you’ve filled in all the gaps and cracks, they can still be problematic. They’re thinner than the rest of the wall, for one thing (even double or triple-glazed windows are thinner), and they’re designed to open, so there’s never going to be a perfect seal.
This is where curtains and blinds are going to help. Although you might think of these things as just something that’s part of your interior design, or perhaps a way to keep your home more private, they can also ensure you stay comfortable and warm when you want to (and cooler in the summer too, come to that).
If your home is very cold, why not invest in some thermal curtains? These are extra thick and designed to keep the heat on the correct side – in your home, in other words. And if you don’t need quite so much heat, standard curtains will still help, so don’t be afraid to hang them.
Perhaps you don’t like how curtains look, and that’s fine; not everyone does. In that case, you can install blinds instead. In some situations, blinds can actually help more – if you have a bay window or windows that form an awkward shape, you can get blinds to fit, ensuring there are fewer drafts compared to hanging a curtain in front of the window.
With some form of covering for your windows, you’ll keep your home much warmer.