Neglecting parts of the winterizing routine can be expensive.
Wow, this winter’s been C-O-L-D! I live in the Midwest where we typically expect a few weeks at a time of well-below freezing weather, but I think we’ve hit some records this year.
And with this cold weather comes the excruciatingly painful heating costs. I just received my electric bill, the most expensive since the three years I’ve lived here. My neighbors said the same, that last month’s was the worst energy bill since they’ve lived in their home.
While it may be easy to skip taking extra steps to winterize your home when the winters are moderate and the extra cost of heating isn’t very big, these extreme temperatures over a long period can make you wish you did it when the weather permitted.
I thought I had prepared my house for the winter. But I may have skimped on a few things since we did those things the year before – a costly mistake. After a year of a house settling, things twist, and new cracks open up.
Another costly mistake can be assuming that a new house is well insulated. No, no, no! Even new houses have all kinds of leaks that let the weather in. I learned that my first winter in my home.
Better late than never.
Winterizing a home should be done before winter. But even if you start now, you can still save money on the rest of this winter’s heating bill. And, your summer cooling bill later this year will be easier to handle, too.
You may have already gone through the routine but missed a few things, as I did. If you missed one little crack you can be sure the cold air will find its way in, and we still have a few more months of cold weather.
The good thing about these extreme winters is that it makes it easy to find all those places where cold air enters your home. Cold air can easily slip in and warm air gets lost through cracks that you can’t even see. And if you can see a crack in the caulk on your window casing or light coming in between your door and door frame, then lots of heat is being lost through those holes.
Some winterizing jobs are small, inexpensive and quick to do right now. Others may be large, all-day jobs that expose you to the outdoor temperature and may have to wait until its more bearable outside. But, every little thing helps, and it’s worth doing now what you can. If you don’t do it, it’s your money that is slipping out those seemingly little cracks.
So take the time to walk through your house and check to be sure every every window, door, and electrical outlet on a wall adjacent to the outside is sealed. Do what you can now. And then write a to-do list for the things that have to wait, because they’re easy to forget about when outdoor temperatures are comfortable.
Here’s my personal assessment of my own home for some examples of what to look for:
I feel cool air coming out the vents unless the heat is cranked up, and now remember that I should have had the air ducts checked for leaks and insulated. The third bedroom, farthest from the furnace, doesn’t get warm unless the door is open. Warm air doesn’t come out of that room’s vent, so I imagine that some of the heat is escaping into the attic. I guess I was cooling the attic with the A/C all summer, too. I’ll have to deal with this when it gets warm enough to brave the attic.
We insulated the attic above the garage last summer to make it more comfortable during extreme temperatures, since we use it for things other than parking cars. We used the recommended amount of blown insulation for our area, but I don’t think it was quite enough. We’ll add some pink batting insulation over it when the weather turns better and we can work in the attic without freezing to death.
Fresh caulk was applied on visible cracks around windows last fall, but there are new cracks after the extreme cold set in. Standing next to those windows, I can feel the cold pushing in. I will get a few tubes of caulking and fix the problem immediately. Also, the weatherstripping on one of the doors isn’t working so well and needs replaced – it wasn’t so obvious when it was above freezing outside.
I used those plastic film insulation kits last winter, but failed to install them for this winter. Some windows are still covered from last year, such as where there are double windows and we only opened one over the summer. So to see just how effective they were, I put my face (more temperature-sensitive than a hand) next to the film-covered window and then by the uncovered window. There was a big difference, and these are modern double-paned windows! It’s 12 degrees Fahrenheit outside right now and I could feel the cold from about two inches away on the uncovered window, but I couldn’t feel the cold even when my face touched the film on the covered window. Gotta go get more of these right away, very effective for relatively low cost!
Okay, so now I realize that a little forgetfulness or a little laziness can cost me big bucks on my energy bill. Those expensive lessons in life are the hardest ones to forget the second time around, so at least I can be sure that next winter’s bill won’t be so bad.
