Winter is coming here.
With the cold spell set to continue in many regions across the country, we thought this would be an ideal time to serve you some tips to aid your efforts in trapping that much needed warmth inside.
Actually, this could not have come at a better time when wood-burning stoves, open flames and space heaters have all been cited as the cause of wintertime house fires being witnessed in some parts of the country, most notably Houston.
Obviously, you have read close to – what is it – 164 articles on how to keep your house warm during the cold season by now. So, we will save you the agony of having to go through the same dross by revealing a few ways to keep snug that would have jived even with our ancestors back in the day.
They are that basic, plus they come at little to zero cost at all. Zippo.
Even more importantly, these methods will keep your home safely heated as the single-digit temperatures carry on for a couple more weeks.
With that tittle-tattle out of the way, let’s dive straight in, shall we?
-
Cover the Walls
While stone or solid brick walls are far more superior to glass when it comes to insulation, they still let out a lot of heat and can get cold. It doesn’t matter how thick they are.
The cool thing, though, is (metaphorically speaking) you can significantly reduce the heat these walls lose by simply covering them with pictures or mirrors.
That’s right, even something as simple as a wall poster can serve as an extra layer of insulation. It will raise the temperatures inside the house by about one degree Celsius and also substantially reduce the amount of energy lost.
If wallpapers are not your kind of thing, you can instead opt for framed pictures or mirrors, although these will set you back more.
If you can swing it, also consider investing in some tapestries to hang on the walls as well as carpets. On top of decorating your home for winter in what would be akin to a medieval theme, these tend to be more effective than posters or mirrors.
-
Cover the Front Door
Doors are known leaks for draft and can be poor insulators especially if they are glazed or thin in diameter.
One effective way to get rid of virtually all the heat escaping through your front door and the surrounding wall is to cover this area with a door curtain, preferably thick-lined.
Speaking of curtains…
-
Close the Curtains at Night
Windows allow more radiant energy into the house during the day than they let out. The logic behind this is that the glass allows sunlight to seep through, but the window is impervious to the infrared radiation trying to seep out.
However, when night falls, windows that are single-glazed can get awfully cold. Even their double-glazed counterparts are not great insulators during the night, allowing temperatures inside the house to drop noticeably. You could crank up the heat, but there will still be significant energy losses.
The most effective way you can curb this loss of heat is to lower your blinds and close the curtains just when dusk is setting in. in addition to reducing drafts and adding insulation, what this also manages to achieve is offer an added obstacle to radiant heat loss.
Indeed, using thick curtains could increase temperature inside to almost room temperature.
-
Place the Furniture in Warm Areas
As much as air temperature may be consistent right across any given room, how warm you feel might depend on which part of the room you are at. The nearer to the inside of the house you are, the warmer you will feel since the cold external walls are farther away. Go ahead, try it.
For this reason, try positioning your furniture next to an internal wall during winter.
For instance, if the head of your bed is just next to a cold external wall, chances are you may be susceptible to suffer a stiff neck. In a way, though, this can be countered by using a solid headboard. Unless, of course, your bedroom is big enough to accommodate a four-poster bed.
Same thing with your desk. If it is positioned up against an external wall such that you are able to peek through the window, your legs will usually get cold. The effect of this can be reduced by placing a cardboard sheet against the wall.
-
Make use of Screens
It is still possible to achieve a toasty home even when you are not able to arrest all the heat escaping through your outer walls.
Back in the early days, our ancestors kept warm in the cold season by huddling up to the fire while placing wooden screens behind their backs. The heat from the fire would warm them up on the front, while the screen behind would effectively keep their backs warm. Inventive.
It is a trick you could borrow for those evenings when lighting up a fire sounds like the best idea ever. There is no shortage of modern fire screens on the market, and now would be a great time to invest in one.
Last Word
If there is a common theme you can draw from these five points, it is that they center more on understanding how heat moves inside your home and what you can actually do to counter the heat loss.
They are simple, affordable, and best of all, safe and effective.
And the added fillip is that these measures will bring your energy costs down considerably.