When winter comes around and you feel a chill in your home, you probably grab a sweater or put another blanket on the bed. Adding another layer might make you warmer when the thermometer drops. Actually, the problem may not be the temperature. It may be that the furnace isn’t running properly. It could also be that the heat isn’t being evenly distributed. Find out the 4 surprising ways you can make your home warmer this winter:
1. Rearrange Your Furniture
If you sit by a window on a winter day, radiant heat loss from your body to the glass makes you feel cold. You turn up the heat or pile on the blankets to get warm, even though the room is actually plenty warm. To avoid this problem, rearrange your furniture so there are no sitting places in front of a window, or on an outside wall. The only exception is, you can place a high-back chair in front of a window. The back will block the radiant heat path from you to the window.
Consider moving living furniture to the center of the room keep you warmer this winter. Create a cozy seating arrangement that will be comfy and warm for family and visitors.
2. Add a Deflector to Your Furnace Thermostat
Another surprising way you can make your home warmer this winter is to check the thermostat. If it’s located in a place where it gets direct sunlight or heat from a nearby source, it will think the temperature in the room is higher than it actually is. The thermostat won’t switch the furnace on like it should, and you’ll notice the cold. To remedy this problem, use a piece of cardboard as a deflector. It needs to stick out about 3-inches from the wall to shield the thermostat from sun (and drafts). Move lamps and other heat sources away from the thermostat too.
3. Attach Deflectors to Your Air Registers
Furnace registers are almost always located on outside walls. That means, drapes can cover and block them, or send the heat to the outside wall instead of to the room. Furniture such as couches, love seats and recliners that are placed in front of the registers make your home colder as well. Instead of warming the air, the heat is absorbed by the furniture. Make sure drapes are out of the way. Then place air deflectors on all the registers. These will send the heat out towards the room. If you can’t relocate furniture, use extended reflectors. These elongated enclosures fit against the air register on one end. They run underneath the furniture and extend out so the warm air reaches the room.
4. Balance the Dampers In Your Home
If some rooms feel warm- or even overheated- while other rooms feel cold, the dampers probably aren’t balanced. If your furnace has dampers, they’ll be located in the main ducts. Open them all the way by moving the handles in the direction of the ducts. After several hours, check the temperatures of the rooms. To cool rooms that are too warm, close the damper that controls that room a little. After another hour, check the temperatures again and make further adjustments as needed.
Resources
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