Winterize Your Home

Keep the Heat inside this year:

• Seal up cracks in walls, around door frames, and around windows with caulk. You can reduce your energy bills by as much as 10% by sealing the air leaks in your home.
  
• Buy new door sweeps (check them yearly for cracks or splits), or make draft dodgers.
• Use expanding foam to seal around your dryer vent, pipes, or drains with openings to the outside.
  
• Make window quilts or hang heavy drapes to keep cold air from coming through the window.
• Use foam weatherstripping around outside doors, and inside doors to rooms that you aren't heating.
  
• Add Insulation to your attic. It is one of the most cost-effective ways of moderating the temperature in your home.
• Keep the curtains or blinds on south-facing windows open on sunny days (close them at night). Use the sun to warm your rooms.
• Insulate heating ducts that run through unheated spaces like the attic or basement. You can lose up to 60% of your heated air if your ducts aren't insulated.
• Insulate the first 6 feet of the hot and cold water pipes connected to the water heater.

Many of these insulation methods cost very little, but can make a big difference in your heating costs, and the comfort level of your home. We just made a Walmart run and bought insulating foam for the outside doors ($2.72), a door sweep ($2.54), and expanding foam for the dryer vent ($3.97).