Winter brings with it holidays and fun, but there’s also the chilly wind and icy snow. Homes in Toronto, from the older ones to the newly built custom homes, can all feel the impact of such harsh temperatures. While turning on the heat is always an option, there are a few simple ways to keep your home warm this winter without turning it on.
1. Use Curtains
Curtains do more than dress up your windows. They can actually help regulate the temperature of your home. When the sun is out, open them up and let the sunlight shine in. This will heat up the air, and it will give your body some much-needed UV rays. Be sure to close them when the sun sets, or if there isn’t any sun shining during the day, to keep the cool air out.
2. Use Timers
Most central heating systems have timers on them, which you should use in the wintertime. Set it to start up about 30 minutes before you wake up. This will make the home warmer when you get out of bed. Having a lower temperature running steadily is actually cheaper than turning the heater on and off whenever you feel cold. Just don’t keep the heat running when you don’t need it, like if you’re leaving for a while.
3. Move Furniture
If your Toronto home uses radiators, make sure you rearrange your furniture appropriately. While it might feel toasty to have your sofa right next to it, this can actually absorb the heat, preventing it from reaching other areas of the home. Keep the area around the radiator free so that the hot air can circulate. This goes for all furniture. You can always move stuff back into place once it warms up a bit.
4. Use Pipe Lagging
You may not have heard of this before, but we recommend it. This simply entails covering hot water pipes with foam tubes. This allows the water inside the pipes to stay hotter for longer. It essentially makes your heating and hot water more efficient because the air is not cooling it down.
5. Use Draught Blockers
This is a super simple solution that you can DIY with many household items. Outside air finds its way inside through any crack, especially around windows and doors. Draught proofing your doors can save you in heating costs. Many home good store sells foam or rubber seals that go around doors and windows to prevent the cold outside air from getting in.
6. Cook At Home
After a long day of work and fighting the brutal weather outside, cooking can be daunting for some people. But cooking at home can help heat it up. Using the oven or stove will emit heat. So not only are you warming up the room, you’ll also get a tasty meal out of it.
7. Flip Fan
Did you know ceiling fans have switches on them to change the direction the blades move in? This is done so that fans can work more effectively at keeping things cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Simply flip the switch, and the fan will start pushing the hot air that rises back down, instead of pulling it up like it would do in the summer.
8. Close Doors and Vents
If there are some rooms that aren’t used as often in the winter time, close the doors to those rooms as well as the vents in there. This will prevent you from unnecessarily heating a space that won’t be used. More hot air will get sent to rooms when you’ll be rather than wasting time heating up unused spaces.
Conclusion
Turning on the heat is a must in the brutal Toronto winters, but even with that these simple tricks will come in handy. It will make your heating more effective and save you some money. Try out these tips this winter and see what a difference it can make. Contact us with any questions or if you want to get started building your dream luxury custom home.
