4 Ways to Prepare your Home for Winter
If you are like most people in Southern California, you probably don’t worry too much about the winter being too cold. After all, we are famous for it being 75 and sunny all year long. However, the truth is that the temperature does drop significantly during the winter months. It’s common for temperatures to drop into the 30s and 40s in the evening during the coolest part of the year.
Although it might seem like your heater use isn’t as significant as your air conditioning (which often has to be used at least a handful of times throughout the winter months as well), it will get used and it’s important to prep your house for the cooler whether during these months when the temperature is starting to drop.
Adjust your Thermostat
Kind of a no-brainer, but it’s important to adjust your thermostat. If you have it at 78 degrees during the summer months, be sure to adjust it down when you start using your heater. The suggested thermostat is 68 degrees. If you keep it at 78 during the winter, you are going to be spending a lot of money keeping your house feeling like the summer.
Reverse your Fans
During the warm months, we recommend setting your fan to run counter-clockwise to push the air down. This creates the feel of a breeze and can make you feel cooler than still air. During the winter months, if you have the air moving up, it still circulates the air (good for a consistent air temperature), but doesn’t make it feel cooler because you don’t have it blowing down directly on you.
Replace your Filter
I know you are probably sick of us talking about this, but replacing your filter regularly is very important. If you are running your HVAC system consistently, you need to change your filter out every 1-2 months. A dirty filter is one of the main causes of HVAC failure, so not performing this inexpensive and easy maintenance can have a very expensive result.
Get your Heater Maintained
Lastly, you should get your heater maintained this time of year. The last thing you want is to wait until the first cold weather and your heater doesn’t work. It happens every year to a lot of our customers, but it is usually easy to avoid. Having one of our technicians come to your home and tune up your HVAC system will prevent it from failing when you really need it the most.
If you have any questions about how to get ready for the winter and colder weather, please give us a call at 800-994-2577. We would love to help in any way we can.