Winter Weather & What To Do
With this week's incoming weather, I'd like to offer some advice on how best to prepare and protect your home from its effects. These are simple but important tasks to perform to prevent inconveniences and potential harm that extreme temperatures can bring to homes, including new ones.
1) Disconnect all exterior hoses from the faucets. Your exterior faucets (called hose bibs) are designed to withstand the elements of harsh weather. However, having a hose connected dramatically increases the potential for water within the hose to freeze and expand into the inner portions of the hose bib, potentially rupturing its supply pipe. Simply disconnecting the hose is the best way to prevent this.
2) Close that garage door. During nicer weather, it's not unusual for some to be in the habit of leaving the overhead door up for a bit into the evening. However, during extremely colder temperatures, doing so will increase the load on your home's energy performance, causing your HVAC system to have to work harder to keep your home comfortable. You also risk forgetting to close the door overnight, which exposes the plumbing to and from your hot water closet to potential freezing and rupturing.
3) Test that heat & fireplace. When going into Fall, it's always a good idea to test your heater(s) and fireplace before you actually need them. That way if something isn't working properly it can be addressed before it beomes an urgent need. Run your heater(s) for a few minutes to ensure they are emitting warm air, and don't be alarmed if you smell a hint of a burning smell. This is simply the result of burning off dust on the coils that haven't been hot for a while.
4) Replace those filters. When your heater can breath better, it heats better. If you haven't changed your air filters at the returns in the past 30 days, you definitely want to do that to help make way for maximum airflow and energy performance (which results in greater comfort.). Remember, don't buy the expensive ones. Get mid-level ones from Lowe's and change them often (every 30 days is the best practice).
5) Be aware of plumbing on exterior walls. If you have any bathroom sinks or shower/tub faucets that are on exterior walls, there are a couple of techniques you'll want to be aware of when temps are expected to dip into the teens or below. For any bathroom sinks on exterior walls, leave the cabinet doors open that are underneath the sink to provide better warm air to circulate. For both sinks and tubs/showers on exterior walls, it may also be necessary to turn on the faucets to a slow drip during extreme temperatures, as moving water helps prevent freezing.
6) Turn off your yard's irrigation system if you have one. This is easy to do, and involves two steps: 1) Turn your controller to off. Your controller is mounted on the inside wall of your garage. In most models, this is simply a dial that you turn to the "Off" position. Turning off prevents the controller from telling your solenoid valves to turn on/off unnecessarily. This is known as dry-firing since it's turning the valves on when water isn't present. 2) Turn off the water supply to the system by turning off a valve at your backflow preventer, which is usually inside your hot water tank closet. You have two valves similar to the blue levers shown below, and turning one of them perpendicular to the pipe will turn off the water supply to the system. (Reverse this process in the spring, or any time temperatures get back into the range of needing to water your landscape.)
Accomplishing these simple tasks will go a long way towards making wintery weather more bearable. Don't forget to start the coffee maker! | jC
1) Disconnect all exterior hoses from the faucets. Your exterior faucets (called hose bibs) are designed to withstand the elements of harsh weather. However, having a hose connected dramatically increases the potential for water within the hose to freeze and expand into the inner portions of the hose bib, potentially rupturing its supply pipe. Simply disconnecting the hose is the best way to prevent this.
2) Close that garage door. During nicer weather, it's not unusual for some to be in the habit of leaving the overhead door up for a bit into the evening. However, during extremely colder temperatures, doing so will increase the load on your home's energy performance, causing your HVAC system to have to work harder to keep your home comfortable. You also risk forgetting to close the door overnight, which exposes the plumbing to and from your hot water closet to potential freezing and rupturing.
3) Test that heat & fireplace. When going into Fall, it's always a good idea to test your heater(s) and fireplace before you actually need them. That way if something isn't working properly it can be addressed before it beomes an urgent need. Run your heater(s) for a few minutes to ensure they are emitting warm air, and don't be alarmed if you smell a hint of a burning smell. This is simply the result of burning off dust on the coils that haven't been hot for a while.
4) Replace those filters. When your heater can breath better, it heats better. If you haven't changed your air filters at the returns in the past 30 days, you definitely want to do that to help make way for maximum airflow and energy performance (which results in greater comfort.). Remember, don't buy the expensive ones. Get mid-level ones from Lowe's and change them often (every 30 days is the best practice).
5) Be aware of plumbing on exterior walls. If you have any bathroom sinks or shower/tub faucets that are on exterior walls, there are a couple of techniques you'll want to be aware of when temps are expected to dip into the teens or below. For any bathroom sinks on exterior walls, leave the cabinet doors open that are underneath the sink to provide better warm air to circulate. For both sinks and tubs/showers on exterior walls, it may also be necessary to turn on the faucets to a slow drip during extreme temperatures, as moving water helps prevent freezing.
6) Turn off your yard's irrigation system if you have one. This is easy to do, and involves two steps: 1) Turn your controller to off. Your controller is mounted on the inside wall of your garage. In most models, this is simply a dial that you turn to the "Off" position. Turning off prevents the controller from telling your solenoid valves to turn on/off unnecessarily. This is known as dry-firing since it's turning the valves on when water isn't present. 2) Turn off the water supply to the system by turning off a valve at your backflow preventer, which is usually inside your hot water tank closet. You have two valves similar to the blue levers shown below, and turning one of them perpendicular to the pipe will turn off the water supply to the system. (Reverse this process in the spring, or any time temperatures get back into the range of needing to water your landscape.)
A typical bakcflow preventer, located within your hot water closet.
Accomplishing these simple tasks will go a long way towards making wintery weather more bearable. Don't forget to start the coffee maker! | jC
