Winterize Your Home

With autumn upon us, it's time to start planning for winter. There are plenty of great reasons to thoroughly prepare your home for the winter season ahead. You'll help ward off the chill, keep heating bills within budget and make your home more energy efficient.

Visit your local True Value hardware store for everything you need to get your home ready for winter, then get started with the steps below.

Step 1. Care for Your Furnace
Don't wait for the beginning of winter to check your furnace — do it in the late fall. Turn off the electricity and gas, and then use a wet/dry vac to clean the entire burner area. Clean the thermocouple with a cloth and use a precision duster with compressed air to clean the pilot light. Replace any disposable air filters and clean washable ones with mild detergent and water. Clean fan blades with a brush and lubricate the fan shaft. If the motor has oiling ports, apply a few drops of heavy-duty electric motor oil. Be careful not to over-oil your furnace and never use automotive motor oil or 3-in-1 household oil.

• When cleaning with compressed air, always wear protective goggles and a dust mask.

Clean ducts thoroughly with a high-powered vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter. The HEPA filter will prevent large amounts of dust from scattering throughout your house. If your home has a forced-air furnace, have the ducts vacuumed regularly. For a furnace with a built-in humidifier, clean the humidifier with a de-scaler to make sure it's working properly.

Patch any leaks in your ductwork to make your heating system more efficient. To seal joints, wipe dust, oily film and grease from the ducts with a clean cloth. Apply foam sealant using a natural-bristle paintbrush at least 1" on each side of the joint. Wrap ducts with pipe insulation.

• Installing a programmable thermostat will help you save energy during the winter.

With your furnace always running during the long winter months, it's smart to use high-efficiency pleated air filters. These filters allow your furnace to pump cleaner air into your home. The pleated design increases the filter's surface area, capturing more lint, dust, pollen, mold and mildew. And pleated filters don't need to be replaced as often as standard filters — they should be replaced every three months compared to every month for regular filters.

Step 2. Winterize Your Hot Water System
Insulate your hot water tank with a water heater blanket. If you have radiators, release trapped air by bleeding the valves — open them slightly until water appears.

Even if you're leaving home for an extended period of time, it's never a good idea to turn off your water heater completely. Instead, you can turn it down. Turn the water heater's thermostat to the "vacation" setting. The pilot light will remain lit, maintaining a slightly warm water temperature within the unit until you return.

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Step 3. Insulate Exposed Piping
Adding insulation around accessible water pipes will save you energy, lower your heating bills and prevent pipes from freezing during the winter months.

Look for water pipes that pass through unconditioned spaces where cold drafts are likely, such as crawl spaces, garages and attics. Check the pipe leading directly from the hot-water heater. And don't ignore hot-water line — hot water lines may freeze slower than cold-water lines, but they're more likely to burst.

Measure the length of each section of pipe and the outside diameter of your pipes. Total the lengths for each section and add about 10 percent more for waste. It can be hard to determine the diameter of a pipe just by holding a ruler up to it. To be more precise, take two short boards and place them across each side of the pipe. Adjust the boards until they are parallel to each other, and then measure the gap between them near the pipe. You could also measure the circumference with a cloth tape measure and divide it by 3.14 (pi) to determine the diameter.

Make sure the pipe insulation kit you choose includes adhesive tape or contact cement for sealing. The most common pipe insulation is tubular foam slit lengthwise to slip over existing pipes. Tubes without slits are designed for installation over new piping, but they can easily be slit with a sharp utility knife.

Open the pipe insulation along the slit, press it onto the pipe, and seal it with an adhesive tape or contact cement to prevent summertime condensation.

• When using adhesive to bond seams, don't insulate pipes while they are hot. Wait 36 hours after sealing the insulation before circulating hot water through the pipes.

After insulating the straight sections of the pipe, you'll need to insulate the valves too. Preformed valve covers are the easiest and most effective option. Simply fit the two halves over the valves and seal the edges with adhesive tape. For hard-to-cover valves, you can use strips of foam or fiberglass designed to wrap around pipes or fittings.

To provide maximum protection for pipes that are very vulnerable to freezing, you can add electrical pipe heating cable. Prior to adding foam insulation, the cable is attached straight along the pipe or wrapped around it. Once it's connected to the power supply, the cable generates just enough heat to keep the water running through your pipes all winter.

• If using electrical pipe heating cable, make sure to follow the manufacturer's instructions for safe and proper installation.

Step 4. Install Storm Windows
Windows are a common culprit of wintertime heat loss. If you have single-pane windows, remove screens and install double- or triple-pane storm windows before winter. Be sure to slide down both the top and bottom storms to help prevent heat loss. If they're stuck or hard to pull down, a little bit of WD-40 will do the trick.

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Step 5. Install Weather Stripping on Outside Doors and Windows
While home insulation usually lasts between up to 50 years, weather stripping often wears out after a few years. Replacing the weather stripping on outside facing doorframes and windows can help you save money and heat through the winter months.

Inspect door and window frames for gaps and holes that may need sealing and clean the area with mild detergent and water. Remove old weather stripping and any adhesive before installing new weather stripping.

Foam tape weather stripping installs easily and usually comes with peel-off backing. Use a utility knife to cut the foam to the correct length. Peel off the backing and press the stripping against the doorstop just behind the latch area.

Step 6. Winterize Your Ceiling Fan
This is an easy one. By simply reversing the spin of your ceiling fans and setting them on low speed, you'll send warm air down into your living space. Most fans have a small switch to set the spin direction. If yours doesn't, you may want to upgrade to a new energy-efficient fan. Using your fans to circulate warm air in the winter saves money and keeps your furnace from having to work as hard.

Step 7. Keep It Warm the Easy Way
There are more easy ways you can make your home warmer and keep heat in. Keeping blinds and curtains open on sunny days will naturally warm up any room. Closing them at night will help keep the heat in and the chill out. Save costs and concentrate warmth in your home by only heating rooms you use. If your heating system has vents, close the ones in unused areas of your home. Use a humidifier — just adding moisture to the air will make your home feel warmer. And as an added bonus, humidifiers also cut down on carpet shocks from dry static electricity.

Good work! With your home ready for the coldest months, you can enjoy increased comfort, efficiency and savings all winter long. For all of your home projects this winter, visit your local True Value hardware store for the tools, products and expert advice you need to start right.

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