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Winterization Within Budget

Energy bills could run very high during winter. Winterizing or preparing for the winter may also be a problem for your purse. There are ways in which you could increase your home?s heating efficiency but at the same time, cur down a little from your previous winter electric bill.

There are things which you could do on your own. There are some homeowners who would hire professional help from plumbers, electricians and contractors. But during this stage of crisis and financial hardship, we can use some simple, do-it-your own and within the budget winterization process.

? Hiring somebody to winterize your home could be expensive. You could start learning on how you could do it from books in your local library or by tackling some cracks and holes. You could also visit websites that could give you sufficient information and even step-by-step procedures.

? You could use plastic sheets when covering unused windows and doors. They could easily be bought in different stores like home improvement shops.

? Do not forget the dryer vent and the area surrounding your washing machine and kitchen sink pipes. Any holes would let the cold wind in and is wasted energy. You could use foam or foam board which can be bought in hardware stores.

? Avoid using your ventilating fans in the kitchen and bathroom since it would suck your heated air out.

? If you have rooms that are not occupied, then it is better to seal off the vent and the doors of these rooms. Imagine keeping the room heated when nobody is even using or going in it.

? Dirty filters are not only dirty, they could also mean more money. Dirt could clog the filters and would eventually cause the filters to work harder and longer.

? You could pull your curtains off the window every morning to let the sunshine and some warmth in the room. At night, your could draw back the curtains to contain the heat and separate the windows from the rest of the heated house.

Preparing your home and your property is not the only thing that you would have to winterize. You would also need to prepare your freezer and your family members for the winter. Summer is a great time for buying sales of fresh produce. You could start stocking up during summer for the winter. You could buy canned fruits, vegetables and meat. Having enough food is important since winter would often mean roads closed, power outages, and harsh weather to be outside. Some would even have extra money with them in case of emergencies.

Aside from fresh produce, you could also start buying equipment that you may need, for example some tape to cover cracks where cold air could pass through. You could also start washing your blankets even before winter strikes. This would save you enough time and at the same time the hassle of preparing the blankets once the first freeze comes in.

Winterizing frugally can be pretty hard. Besides, winter is the most expensive season there is. Energy bills could take a chunk out of your funds. Anyway, it is important to put your family?s comfort and health before anything else.

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Wintering Your Boat: How To Prepare It For Winter

As the boating season comes to a halt, your top concern would be preparing your boat for winter storage. You have to make sure it is safe and snug all through winter and can survive the cold weather. Hiring a professional to winterize your boat is a good option, although you can do the job on your own. Along with the manufacturer?s recommendations, the following guidelines can help you through winterizing your boat.

Clean the boat?s interior.
This means taking the mess off the carpet, getting rid of the food items from the refrigerator, dusting the lockers and cabinets, airing out the cushions, etc. Clear the interior as thoroughly as possible. Take note of the damages and do arrangements to have the necessary replacements. Also, provide proper boat ventilation to avoid trapping moisture inside, which invites the growth of mold and mildew. Consider using mildew spray and dehumidifiers as well.

Fill the fuel tank and add fuel stabilizer.
Doing so will prevent condensation and oxidation that may work against the engine. After adding stabilizer, run the motor up until the stabilizer has penetrated the engine.

Change the oil.
Drain the old oil properly and replace it with fresh oil. Start the engine to allow the oil to circulate and penetrate the system. Changing oil is necessary to prevent corrosion that results in engine defects. Do not forget to change the oil filter as well.

Hose the engine with fresh water.
Then, allow the engine to drain. Make sure the engine is completely drained of water because a small amount of residual water will tend to freeze and result in serious damages. To prevent the build-up of rust and corrosion, spray fogging oil onto the engine. Start by running the engine and shutting down the fuel supply. As soon as the engine stops on its own, take out the spark plugs and spray fogging oil onto the cylinders.

Take a good look at the hull.
If you find gelcoat blisters, treat them with special epoxy. Also, check the bottom of the boat and scrape off barnacles. You can pressure-wash the bottom to remove tough dirt and slime. Do the necessary painting and waxing to restore the boat?s exterior appeal.

Charge the batteries.
Disconnect the batteries, add distilled water, and charge them at home. Some boat experts advise charging the batteries after every 30 to 60 days.

Choose the best storage method for your boat.
You have three options: backyard storage, indoor storage, or boatyard shrink-wrapping. Backyard storage is a convenient and practical approach. Keeping the boat in your yard only requires a boat cover, which should be sturdy and made of breathable materials to discourage moisture and growth of mold and mildew. Indoor storage, on the other hand, means keeping your boat in a paid facility. This can be a bit costly, but it guarantees that your boat is safe and protected from winter elements.

The final option is shrink-wrapping your boat. After winterizing your boat, you can either have a boatyard personnel shrink-wrap your boat or buy a kit and do it on your own, after which the boat is placed in a boatyard to spend the winter.

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Tips For Winterizing Your Vacation Home

Winterizing your vacation home, in essence, is preparing to close it down in time for winter. Shutting it down, however, is not as easy as it sounds. You need it to be meticulously done, otherwise, you will go back home to a place of broken pipes, rodents, and a number of damages come post-winter season. But although it?s kind of a meticulous task, winterizing your vacation home can be quite manageable if you follow some tips.

Clear the gutters and surrounding area of your vacation home.
Remove all the leaves and other debris from the gutters so that melting snow and ice can freely flow and do not create ice dams in the structure. You can have your gutters covered with a screen, if leaves and other debris seem to be a problem while you?re away. Next, prune trees and plants that can potentially cause property damages if snow storms and winds occur. Then, clean your lawn, so when ice and water accumulate, no rodents will take residence in it. Also, cover your chimney with protective cap, and other possible entry points for that matter, to keep rodents, pests, and foreign objects from entering.

Shut down water system.
Never leave the vacation home without turning off the water pump, because failure to do so may cause the water trapped in the lines to freeze and the pipes to break and burst. Now, once you shut off the pump, drain the water pipes. Do this by turning the faucets on until all residual water comes out. Use a compressor to make sure there is no more water remaining in the lines.

Winterize the toilet.
Empty the toilet tank to avoid cracks. The bowl, on the other hand, should be drained by scooping out as much water as you can. Add antifreeze solution to the remaining water to prevent it from freezing. Antifreeze solution should also be added to sinks and shower traps.

Insulate the house.
Install insulation in the attic to prevent heat loss. The same should be done in the basement so as not to cause pipe breaks.

De-clutter your house.
Eliminate all products, such as medicine, cosmetics, beverages, and food items, that may rot and freeze in the winter months. You can dispose them of or bring them to your main house. Your refrigerator should also be unplugged, emptied, cleaned, and propped open all through winter to prevent the development of mildew and unpleasant odor. All other appliances should as well be unplugged.

Keep outdoor furniture and appliances inside.
To prevent them from winter damages, all outdoor furniture and appliances?from stools to barbecue equipment?should be kept indoors. Tools should also be stored in the garage. Should keeping them indoors is impossible, cover them with protective sheets, like plastic.

Turn the heating system on.
Some homeowners prefer to turn it off, while others like to leave their heating system in a working order. It works best for them, especially if they worry about going back to a vacation home infested with mold and mildew. If you prefer to keep the heating system on, keep a minimum heat of 62?F. This way, you can continue winterizing your vacation home while you?re away.

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Winterizing Your Home

Preparing your home for the winter is essential. Aside from living comfortably during the harsh temperature, winterizing would also help in extending the life of your home and avoid problems in the future.

Preparing your home for the winter can be done by professional plumber, electrician or contractor. However, there are also other things that you could do on your own. How do you prepare your home for the winter? Here are some things that you could keep in mind.

? Check and clean you gutters. Remove the leaves, twigs and other branches that may be blocking your gutter. You could clean them by hand or by a scraper. This can clog the drains which would later cause the water to back up and freeze in the gutter. This would eventually seep into the walls of the house. Make sure that your gutters do not have cracks and the pipes are properly aligned.

? Work on those cracks and leaks. Look for those leaks and cracks in your home and block them. According to the EarthWorks Group, an average American would have leaks that amount to a nine-square-feet hole in the wall. Cold air could slip inside your home and hot air to escape. This would add up to bigger fuel cost.

? Turn on your furnace to check if it is working even if the coldest weather has not yet arrived. Furnaces should be cleaned and maintained once a year. You could get a professional to check the furnace. Change the filters monthly since dirty filters could cause fire.

? Check your air ducts. If the duct work is not properly connected, about 60 %PRCTG% of heated air is lost, meaning a lot of energy is consumed without even benefiting the residents.

? Changing windows could be expensive, but it would surely help in the providing protection and warmth. Aside from storm windows, there are also the window insulator kits. These kits however, are not too attractive to look at and only temporary, but they are definitely inexpensive. You would just have to affix it into the interior side of the window.

? Avoid pipes bursting. Make sure that water hose, pipe lines are drained and turned off. Insulate your pipelines, you could wrap them with foam rubber or with heating tape.

? Aside from insulating your pipes, you should also check the insulation in the attic. The recommended thickness for attic insulation would be about 12 inches. Also check the basement and the exterior walls if they are properly insulated.

? It is important to have you chimneys, fireplaces and woodstoves cleaned. They may have accumulated debris and soot over the time is was not used which can cause some problems once you started using them again. For chimneys, it is better to seal or cover them with chimney caps and screens to keep out birds and rodents.

Inspecting and winterizing your home would not only help you against the winter ahead, but it would also help you reduce on your fuel costs. Unchecked and non properly maintained parts of your home could cause safety issues and the same tine increase your maintaining cost.

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Your Swimming Pool And Winterizing It

It?s nearly winter, its time for winterizing. Winterizing or winterization is the process of preparing your homes, summer houses, cars, boats and even lawn and yard for the harsh temperature of winter. It is important to prepare your water and irrigation systems for the winter, to avoid any pipes bursting because of water freeze and your cars to avoid crashes and accidents.

Another home feature that requires winterizing is the swimming pool. When winterizing a pool, the first step is clear the pool of any kind of debris or contaminants. You could use nets, filters, and poles with nets to clear the water of any contaminants. You could start winterizing your swimming pool as early as autumn.

If you have an above-ground pool, check if it has any leaks and cover it immediately. There are many pools that are damaged because of a simple leak. Since the water would turn into ice and would expand, the walls of the above-ground pool will experience pressure. This pressure could be dangerous especially if there is a crack or a leak already existing.

Aside from cleaning it, also check the water chemistry of the pool. You should ensure that the chemical balance is maintained. A balanced pool water chemistry would ensure that the surface of the pool is free of staining and etching.

To make things easy for homeowners, there are some manufacturers who would release winter kits. These winter kits would include winter chlorine, winter alkalizer, and some winter powder. These winter kits would ensure that the pool will stay clean until after the winter season. It is important to read manufacturer instructions when putting or using these winter chemicals in your pool.

After adding the winter chemicals and clearing out the filters, you would need to make sure that all proper places are covered. Plumbing lines should be free of any kind of water, you could use a shop vac to do that. This would blow out water from each filter line. Then make sure that it is covered with plugs. Aside from the lines, make sure that the pump is also drained.

You would also need to have a pool cover. Some would recommend the use of a floatation device in the middle of the pool before covering it. The use of this floatation device would allow the ice to push towards the middle of the pool, this would relieve the pools walls from pressure which can cause support problems later on. When covering your pool, make sure that it is covered tightly. You do not want the pool cover to fly away along with a strong wind or rain.

Make sure that there are no chemicals like chlorine and bromine tablets left in any part of your pool, whether it is in the bottom of your pool or in your feeder. This would cause serious damage to the pool, the feeder and other equipment.

Proper pool winterizing would ensure that you would be experiencing sparkling waters during the warmer climate and at the same time ensure a longer life span for your pool.

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