Sweater weather for your house: your fall maintenance checklist
Hi, friends.
As the days get shorter, we’re sipping our mulled ciders and enjoying local leaf-peeping (sometimes at secret spots). We’re also enjoying our space – turns out, all those no-fun fall cleaning chores got us ready to enjoy our space and settle in for a comfy, cozy season.
But we’re not done yet. The inside of the house is a good starting place to clear out the clutter and deep-clean. But there are also less obvious seasonal to-dos that don’t make an aesthetic impact, but keep energy bills lower and maintenance hassles to a minimum. Here’s a quick checklist before fall leaves give way to colder weather:
1. Change filters
In a region with both hot summer days and snowy winter nights, heating and air conditioning systems tend to get a workout. Through all of that, air circulates through filters that clog up over time and force the system to work harder and uses more energy. Fall, then, is a perfect time to give your HVAC system a little love. Replacing its filter is a low-tech, low-cost way to have cleaner air in your home and use less energy overall. In other words, win-win-win.
2. Seal drafts
Tough to identify but important to find, even the smallest draft from under a door through an old, ill-fitting window can dramatically increase your heat use. Rubber door seals or stoppers run between $10 and $14 and, like HVAC filters, are a simple and incredibly effective way to solve a long-term, costly problem.
3. Bring in patio furniture
This is the part where a neighbor or strong child can step up to the plate. First, have one of them on standby. Next, hose and wipe down your patio furniture so it’ll be ready for primetime when warm weather returns. Once you’ve prepped a place to store it, call on your trusted helper to carry each piece in, wish it a good winter, and say goodbye ‘til spring.
4. Drain outdoor faucets
As anyone who’s ever forgotten about wine bottles in the freezer can attest, when liquids expand, they can do some serious damage – and glass shards are the least of it. Outdoor faucets and their pipes are vulnerable to freezing in colder months, which can cause pipes to burst from the pressure. To keep them happy until spring returns, first shut off the water supply. Next, head outside to your outdoor faucets and disconnect any hoses or other attachments. Run each faucet until they’re out of water, and close them up. Voila: you’re (nearly) ready for winter.
5. Set the thermostat
We know: it’s tempting to turn the thermostat down – way, way down – when you’re away for winter trips. But indoor pipes can freeze too, sometimes with consequences that make coming home a real kill-joy. Before your jet off to the beach or the slopes, set the heat between 57-60 degrees; bonus points for opening the cabinet under the sink. Not only is it more cost-effective to warm up your home from a warmer baseline temperature, but it also keeps your pipes from bursting.
Cold-weather home prep isn’t glamorous but consistent attention to details (like filters) will let you enjoy your home even more, and with fewer hiccups.
Until next time,
The BRIGS Team