We all love a warm and comfy home during the cold winter months. So before the worst of the weather arrives, go through our checklist to make sure that you are protecting your home and your family, as well as heating your home efficiently.
Many of these things you can do yourself to keep maintenance and utility bills down.
Your winter checklist
- Clear your spouting of leaves, debris and plant material
- Clean out drainage channels and ensure storm drains are clear
- Weather-strip any windows or doors that are draughty
- Check that ceiling insulation is in place and close access holes
- Trim trees with overhanging branches near windows and spouting
- Cover outdoor furniture that’s not in regular use
- Secure outdoor furniture and the trampoline in case of high winds
- Check your emergency supplies including replacing any out of date food items, refreshing water supplies and ensuring torches are working. Find out more at getthru.govt.nz.
- Have your heating system serviced
If your home is notoriously cold during the winter months, now’s the time to consider a more efficient and effective heating system, before the big chill arrives.
some good tips here especially making sure that the torches are working (and that you know where your candles and matches are) for when there are powercuts. Also good to have some extra meals or easy meals in case you get winter bugs as well.
Oh my goodness that is such a good list! So recently we had some really heavy rain and our kitchen started to develop a leak. My husband went out int he pouring rain to see what the issue was – it was leaves blocking the drainpipes. So yes! So important to make sure those pesky leaves are all cleaned out, before it’s raining cats and dogs and it’s too late!
Our home is an old country house and can still be relatively cold despite our best attempts to warm it including insulation, weather stripping windows etc. One thing we are guilty of this year is not being more prepared outdoors! I feel like the cold crept on us a little bit this year 🙁
We get prepared for winter by putting anything away outside that we use in summer, cleaning out the drain pipes as they get fill of nests. I had never heard of a ducted gas heating system we put in ducted air conditioning to our rooms about 2 years ago and it’s great but was an expensive out lay I’m guessing gas would have been a cheaper way of doing it .
We are abit different we live in a house bus in the mother in laws driveway but yes we do us heaters very often to stay warm. The power goes up but with being in this boarding situation we just pay to cover power each week. So we always keep on top. It’s hard in winter with extra expenses like different things to keep the family warm.
We currently rent and small apartment in a commercial building – it is triple brick so can get very cold, but heats pretty easily and stays warm luckily. Our landlord put in a heat pump last year which is a God send 🙂 We can leave doors open to bedrooms and heat the whole place as it’s quite small