Get ready for winter – 10 tips for comfort

It’s still fall, it’s true, but this is also the right time to prepare your home for winter cold. If the season gives us a few sunny day, we could also dedicate ourselves to a little DIY, to enjoy a warm, cozy and not too dangerous for our savings home for the next months. You won’t need to install any of our products, but as we know how to control the humidity and the heat inside an industrial electric panel, we are also able to suggest a few small tricks to make your home “winter-proof”.

1. Maintenance of the heating plant: before heating system ignition, it would be good to call a qualified technician to carry out the control of boiler and flue gas emitted from it. The plant, which stopped during the summer, may experience a lack of pressure, deterioration of pipes and pumps that generally allow efficient circulation of water inside the radiators. This check is also required by law in Italy. So let’s immediately fix an appointment with the technician, in order not to remain in the cold!
2. Clean the chimney: maybe your boiler functions perfectly, but the chimney is congested. In alternate years, you will need to think about its cleanliness, preferably carried out by a professional. This rule also applies to wood-burning fireplaces, a proper draft will prevent the smoke from invading your living room (and your guests) to the first firing!
3. Check windows and doors: a freezing draft while watching television after a day of work is the most annoying thing of all. How are your windows? Make sure they close at perferction, and that the sleeves are not broken or worn, so that air does not pass under doors … On colder days, a drop of one degree in temperature within a room, can increase fuel consumption up to 8%.
4. Optimize the pellet: this year we had a… really wet summer! If you have a pellet stove is useful to check the status of your stocks: if the wood has absorbed too much humidity, in fact, there may cause problems with the stove ignition and the efficiency of the entire system. Buy a new pack and leave the open one near a heat source, so that it can dry out and you can reuse it without waste.
5. Program the thermostat: a careful thermostat programming can significantly reduce consumption. Think of your “typical day”, and act accordingly, taking into account that in optimal conditions (and after following our advice!), a room can also warm up in less than an hour. By day, the temperature should be set at around 20° C, while at 16° C at night.
6. Bleed the air from the radiators: during the summer closure, the air in the radiator prevents the elements to evenly heat up. Remedy this problem is really very simple: just loosen the valve, let the air flow away and then reseal it to prevent drips. If the valve is not present, you can have installed one by a technician, with a small charge which, however, will come in very useful in future years.
7. Insulate the roof: one of the functions of the roof, in addition to protect from the elements, is also to prevent heat from dispersing outside, while avoiding an excessive humidity. However, a tile can move or break, there may be infiltration, also very dangerous for the whole house. In addition, to check the health of the structure, we must also verify that its insulation is very effective and not damaged. In this case, we need a really urgent intervention!
8. Isolate the back of radiators: you may have already heard that we should not cover the radiators with furniture or heavy curtains to make sure that the heat is spread properly in the room. But … behind? The contact with a cold wall, especially in older homes, it creates a huge heat loss. It’s time for bricolage: with some foam board, your house will warm up in a minute!
9. Install flow reducers: you are in the shower and… ops! It’s over hot water. The boilers have in fact a limited storage tank, especially if you live in an apartment. Maybe someone has washed their hands or teeth, and the hot water has been needlessly lost. Solve this problem with a trick: install a flow reducer on the faucet. Apparently, the water will fall as before, but it will be mixed with air, reducing the actual consumption of the hot water up to 30%.
10. Dehumidify the room: do you remember that nasty “chilled to the bone” feeling? It’s the humidity present in the environment fault because the water particles in the air subtract heat from our body faster than it would happen in a dry environment. For this reason it is good to dehumidify, even just placing a vessel containing salt inside the rooms.

This year, therefore, play in advance!