Getting Your Home Ready for Winter

You may still be experiencing the heat of summer, but winter is right around the corner. Knowing that Texas has fluctuating weather during the winter months, now is the time to consult with your Coppell electric company to ensure you are not caught unaware in the coming months. Pronto Power is happy to share the following tips on winterizing your home for comfort and savings.

Insulation

The power of insulation can not be overstated. Add insulation to your attic, walls, basement, around your hot water heater and pipes, and around your windows. And if you can’t insulate it, caulk it. Add caulk around windows and at any opening where pipes or wires enter your home. Any air leak driving ambient air into your home negatively affects your power bill.

Window insulation can be as simple as installing inexpensive window insulation kits or as drastic as purchasing all new windows. For an easy fix, trap air between windows and the interior of your house by closing the blinds or curtains as another form of insulation.

Weather stripping is a form of adhesive insulation for around door frames. If your home has weather stripping, verify it is still working properly.

Ceiling fans

During the summer, ceiling fans should be rotating counterclockwise in an effort to keep you cooler. During the winter, the hot air you were trying to dispel is still rising, so wintertime means you want that same hot air to come down to warm you. Change the setting on your ceiling fans to clockwise and enjoy the warmth. You can usually set your thermometer a few degrees cooler when using a ceiling fan. Remember, though, that the fans only need to be on when you are in the room; they are not warming the room, they are warming you.

Change the filter

To keep your furnace running at peak performance, change the filter regularly. This easy maintenance can extend the lifetime of your HVAC system.

Thermostat settings

Room temperature should be 68° F or cooler during winter months. For extended periods of time away, set the heater to 50° F. This temperature is warm enough to eliminate frozen pipes while keeping your energy bills low.

Don’t touch that dial!

You might be cold when you enter the house on a cold evening, but don’t immediately turn up the heater’s temperature settings. Instead, leave your jacket on a little longer. Heating your home to 90° F when you are cold will do you no good and is very hard on your heating system.

Smart thermostat
A smart thermostat is able to sense when you are home by connecting with your phone. When you program the temperatures you prefer for home and away (keep the house about 5° F colder when you are at work or otherwise out of the house), the smart thermostat will adjust the temperature accordingly. Better thermostats can also track your usage and adjust to be more effective.

Check the electrical panel and wiring

Hire an electrician to ensure all your home’s wiring and electrical panel are in good shape before winter sets in. It is much more beneficial to find a problem before a power outage or weather interruption than during. Also, small problems discovered now cost a little to repair. As the damage persists, the amount you need to pay to fix the problem escalates sharply.

Buy surge protectors

In the event of a brownout, a surge protector is essential. Your electronic devices are finely tuned to feed off the correct current. During a brownout, that current fluctuates greatly and can damage your electronics unless they are plugged into a surge protector. If you do not have a surge protector and rolling blackouts or brownouts are looming, unplug all your electronics.

Need more information and money saving ideas for winterizing? Call your Coppell electric company, Pronto Power, at 888 400-6632.