8 Easy Ways to Help Your Home Feel Warmer This Winter

Over the winter, everyone wants to stay warm. However, you probably also want to keep your energy consumption and electricity bills low. Instead of cranking up the heat and feeling the pain in your wallet, you can follow a few tips to make your home warmer without raising your energy bills. Learn more about the top DIY heating methods and best practices for heater maintenance during the winter below:

1. Ensure Your Furniture Isn’t Close to Radiators or Heating Ducts

If you have furniture close to your heating ducts or radiators, they could be blocking airflow. Check your home’s ducts and radiators, and then move any furniture potentially blocking your vents at least 10 inches away from them. By freeing up airflow, you’ll ensure your heating system is properly warming your home.

2. Reverse Your Ceiling Fans’ Motion

You probably don’t turn your ceiling fans on much during the winter. However, they can keep your home warm if they have a setting allowing you to reverse their motion and have the blades rotate clockwise. Switching a fan to a reverse motion will push cool air towards your ceiling and cause any warm air nearby to spread to your walls and floor. Since this setting pulls cool air up and pushes warm air down, you’ll feel warmer.

3. Keep Your Curtains Open

One of the easiest ways to heat your home is to use the sun. When it’s sunny out, open your curtains and let the light through your windows. The extra light will keep your home warmer during the day and brighten up your space.

4. Switch Over to Heavier Curtains

While letting sunlight inside your house is a great way to stay warm during the day, it won’t make much difference at night or when it’s overcast. One great way to keep your home warmer is to take down thin curtains and replace them with heavier drapes. When it’s dark out, fleece or flannel curtains do an excellent job of insulating you from cold windows and the chill they can produce in your home.

5. Replace Dirty Furnace Filters

One of the biggest causes of heating issues in the winter is a dirty furnace filter. When filters are dirty, air can’t efficiently flow through them, making it harder for your heating system to warm your home. Fortunately, this issue is easy to fix. All you’ll need to do is replace a dirty furnace filter with a clean one. If your heating system continues struggling to heat your home after you replace the filter, you’ll likely need to contact an HVAC professional for more in-depth heater maintenance.

6. Invest in Some Rugs

If rooms in your home aren’t carpeted, investing in some rugs for them can be a great way to keep your home warm. Adding some rugs will keep your feet much warmer than bare hardwood or tile flooring. Besides their feet warming abilities, rugs can also assist with insulation and prevent drafts from your floorboards. Rugs also look great and can make your home look cozier.

7. Seal Leaks in Your Home

When you have leaks in your home, you’ll be letting cold winter air inside and allowing your heated air out. These leaks often occur around unsealed doors, single-paned windows, pipes, attic accesses, and electrical outlets. To stop cold air from getting inside your home and heat from escaping, you’ll want to seal any leaks. Instead of spending time doing it yourself, you can hire an HVAC technician to inspect your home and seal up any leaks after finding them.

8. Inspect Your Heater

Have you noticed your heating system isn’t putting out enough warm air like it used to? It’s probably time to schedule an inspection from an HVAC technician. The technician can check to see if everything’s in working order and provide any repairs if they discover an issue. If you have an older HVAC system and it’s time for a full replacement, a great technician can also provide a new heater installation.

Choose Newcomb and Company for Heater Repair and Installation in Raleigh

At Newcomb and Company, we’re committed to helping homeowners in Raleigh, Wilmington, and the surrounding areas stay warm over the winter. Due to this commitment, we offer heater repair and installation services. Alongside these services, we also provide annual HVAC comfort contracts to our clients. With one of these contracts, our team will perform routine heater maintenance throughout the year to ensure your heater works at its best whenever you need it.