Winter Energy Savings

Posted on Friday, October 28th, 2011

The leaves are still falling off of the trees, but winter is already just around the corner. It is the perfect time of year for hay rides, corn mazes, and apple cider. While you pull out your fleece and other warm weather clothes, keep in mind that your home needs to stay warm to. Yep, the local news will start telling you how you can save on your heating bill, but the truth is, the less you need the heater, the more affordable this winter will be.

Air Leaks

Air exchange between the inside and outside is the number one way homes lose energy. Just as quickly as the air is heated, it can leave your house. Leaving you cold to your bones and a little bit poorer every month. Windows leaking air are a major concern, but plastic window insulators that look like saran wrap are a quick and easy solution to preventing air flow. The more challenging task is to fix the leaking door.

Doors are one of the most inefficient components on a home’s fenestration (a home’s outer wall). To see if you have a leaky door, wait until night and have someone shine a flashlight along the edges. If light leaks through, you know you have a leak. You can use any multitude of weather stripping for any door style.

Heat Exchange

The heat you generate on the inside of your home will eventually warm the walls and ceilings. Some of that heat will eventually find its way outside. Properly insulating your home makes sure that most of your heat never finds its way to your vinyl siding. If you have bare stone, drywall, brick, or wood walls anywhere in your home, you are unnecessarily losing heat. You could easily cover these areas with actual insulation, or cover them with insulating blankets during the winter to minimize your heat loss.

Heat Radiation

Have you ever seen an action movie, or police surveillance video where the surroundings are dark, but people running around a brightly lit up in white? That is heat radiation. Our homes give off heat radiation during the winter and normal insulation doesn’t prevent it from escaping. To keep the radiative heat inside your house, where it belongs, you can use radiative heat thermal insulation to reflect it back.

Using All Of The Tools In The Shed

When it comes to insulating your home, you need to have a whatever it takes attitude. Most solutions are very affordable and your energy savings will pay it off within a couple years at most. The rest of the time, you can sit comfortably in your living room knowing that you are paying just the right amount to keep your house warm. Doing anything less means your house will be leaking money and no one likes to throw their money out of the door.

WE SERVE

• Asheville
• Atlanta
• Birmingham
• Charlotte
• Chattanooga
• Greenville
• Knoxville
• Nashville
• Surfside Beach

SERVICES

• T-Plank Siding™
• Dixie Super Windows™
• IceCOLD™
• Bath Systems
• Soffit and Trim
• Gutters
• Insulation

FROM OUR BLOG

• Preparing for Summer with Dixie
• Bathrooms: How Dixie can Help you go from “Before” to “After”
• Safety Tubs: A Modern Twist on Bathing
• How do you know when it’s right? Contractor Edition

View our Archives