Do you know that keeping your house warm and dry in the winter can retain the warmth better while keeping power costs down? That’s why people are rushing to prepare for this upcoming winter and I think you should be no exception. Following are the best tips that I’ve collected everywhere:
How to keep a house dry
Open the windows
Start from the easiest, opening all windows whenever you are cooking, bathing or showering is the best way to keep your house dry since it releases steam as well as refreshes the indoor air.
This is also the cheapest way to prevent dampness and condensation caused in the house.
If you are living in a heavily air polluted environment, it’s worth considering to install a good ventilator to help you filter the outdoor air and impurities before getting inside the house. Besides, opening the curtains during the day to let sunlight in your house.
This is a free heat source that even works well on the cold days. And when the nighttime arrives, close them to avoid cold air invaliding your house as well as interior heat escaping through windows.
Leave the washing dry outside
Laying your washing indoor is another bad way to increase the moisture level in your house. The higher the indicator, the less heat-retaining of the house.
For that reason, it’d better leave the washing outdoor to dry out. If it’s raining, you can move them into your carport or garage.
How to keep a house warm
To heat a house efficiently, you need to make it well-insulated beforehand. In other words, you have to prevent your home’s heat loss as much as possible. And here are my most favorite tricks:
To insulate a house
Add layers to the wood floors
It’s not for no reason that many homeowners add some rugs or carpets to their house, especially during the fall/winter. They are the best layers to avoid the heat loss of your house.
For people who don’t know, wood floors are considered uninsulated and according to the National Energy Foundation, it can cause 10% heat loss.
If possible, invest in good-quality rugs and carpets.
Seal all leaks and decrease the “stack effect”
There might be some air leaks around your home, especially beyond doors and windows, in your garages, basements, kitchen hood vent, and roof.
You can learn more here to seal them.
Now is the stack effect. It describes the air movement in and out of a building, house to make chimneys on a large scale. It helps to keep air well-ventilated but during the winter, this is also the path to draw cold air indoor, especially through leaks and gaps.
The latter the house, the higher the stack effect and the chiller the house. That’s why I recommend reducing it by sealing all the gaps that you find around the house.
A trick to easily look for them is lighting up a candle and carry it with you around your house. Point it particularly closer to windows and doors. Hold the candle still and see whether it’s flickering or not. If yes, they are leaked or have a gap.
Another way is to use your hand to feel the cold air but this is quite subjective since your hands might be cold at that time to hardly feel anything. And it’s usually useless with little too tiny gaps.
To fill gaps in the doors or windows, try using weather stripping, door sweeps or door snakes.
To heat a house
Use space heaters
This is the most popular way to warm a house but for beginners, it might be a bit overwhelming due to the plenty of types of heaters.
From my experience, electric heaters are the safest and most effective out of a bunch since they operate by electricity source, not charcoal or propane to release toxic air.
With infrared heaters that utilize liquid power sources to operate, it takes high risks of fire hazard and carbon monoxide which are unhealthy enclosure spaces. They, in fact, account for 1/3 of all house fires relating to heating.
Another benefit of electric heaters is the quick heat releasing capability to avoid making you wait. Not to say that when turning it off, the warmth is remained up to 4 hours – which is much better than other manually-operated ones.
When choosing them, there are at least three things to consider:
- Safety certifications
- Economy mode
- Timetable control
If you want to learn more about this, this article might be helpful.
How about using a fireplace?
A fireplace is also a good heating way to your house while adding a romantic atmosphere but there are some common issues you should keep in mind:
- Through that fireplace, it draws cold air inside, meaning after turning off the fire, your house is quickly chilled out.
- The heating area is small, nearly just around the fireplace to force you and other members to sit in front of it to feel the warmth
- Inefficient flue is like a wide opening window to let warm air escape and welcome cold air into your house
But if you prefer the cozy flame of a fireplace adding to your home, here are some tips to overcome such minor drawbacks:
- Seal all gaps and leaks to avoid heated air escaping matter
- Install glass in front of your fireplace to retain warmth in the house
- Reconstruct the flue, keep it as close to the fireplace when it’s not in used as possible to keep the closure
Conclusion
Out of the listed methods to insulate and keep your house warm, remember to wear multiple layers to keep warmth for yourself. The best items are sweaters and hoodies while sipping hot drinks and setting a warm robe. Anyway, I hope this article was helpful. Thanks for reading!
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I’m James J. Decker, a hobbyist and DIYs and also a big of home improvement and gardening tools. I immensely enjoy how these amazing products improve productivity and efficiency, and allow me to do jobs for which I would’ve otherwise needed professional help.
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