While most places experience colder temperatures in winter, subzero temperatures are rare in most places. But when the temperature gets this low, it’s important to know what you can do to keep your home warm so that you and your family have a safe place to be while the weather outside isn’t safe to be in for more than just a few minutes.
To help ensure that you’re able to manage these cold temperatures well, here are three tips for keeping your home warm during subzero temperatures.
Find Simple Ways To Add Insulation
For many homes, the amount of insulation that they use isn’t adequate for long stretches of subzero temperatures. Knowing this, you’ll want to find ways that you can add some insulation to your home so that there’s less heat lost.
Some of the most vulnerable places in your home for heat loss during subzero temperatures are your doors and windows. Because of this, you’ll want to focus most of your effort for added insulation here. This can be done by putting up plastic sheeting or thick blankets or drapes over your windows. You can also use draft stoppers around the doors so that cold air isn’t able to come in as easily through these cracks.
Be Smart About Using Your HVAC System
The way that you use your HVAC system during subzero temperatures may also need to change from how you normally use it during the winter.
While you can keep it running at the normal temperature you set it, this will likely cause the heater to be on almost constantly to try to keep this temperature up. So if you’re going to do this, you’ll want to make sure that there’s a fresh filter in place and that you’re not blocking any of the heat registers so that the hot air can come in unimpeded. Additionally, you may want to put the temperature down just a few degrees to help you use less energy during these times.
Consider Adding Some Space Heaters
Depending on the size of your home and how many people you’ll have in your home during these coldest days, you may want to consider just using some space heaters to keep certain rooms warmer and close off the rooms that don’t need to be heated quite as much.
If you choose to go this route, just make sure that you’re practicing safe space heater etiquette, which means never leaving them unattended, keeping anything flammable well away from the space heater, and ensuring that the cords, plug-ins, and outlets are being used appropriately to avoid things like fire hazards.
If you’re worried about how to best keep your home warm during subzero temperatures, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you learn some ways that this can best be done.