cold weather at home being prepared is a matter of survival.
As I write this it is minus 5 degrees F and the wind chill is minus 20 degrees F.
That was about 2200 hours [10PM] by 0700 the next day it was minus 22 degrees F actual temperature. That was morning of Feb 4th
Most of us consider that to be a bit on the ‘airish’ side.
We do have an inch or so of snow on the ground right now which is not near enough. Some of the concerns are that water pipes may freeze and break. The easiest way to deal with preventing that is to turn your sink faucet on to a drip. The theory on this is that running water does not freeze as fast. Water lines are typically buried below the frost line so the water is above 32 degrees F and as it comes up into your house it warms the pipes slightly. Once the pipes come out of the ground it is a good idea to have ‘heat tape’ around the pipes and cover that with insulation. This will keep the pipes from freezing and should have been put on already. IF you are fortunate enough to not have your water pipes freeze yet plan on getting the heat tape and insulation and putting all that on when it is nicer weather. You of course have to measure the pipes for length to do the job. The way that we have it set up is with a power switch so that we only have to use electricity when it is cold. If you are lucky enough to have the pipe come up into your basement you will not have to worry about all of that.
Many of us in the colder areas of the world put storm windows on which create a ‘dead’ air space which keeps you warmer in the winter AND cooler in the summer too. Most houses also have storm doors which do the same thing. Doors are harder to deal with as they still have to open and air tends to flow through the cracks at the door frame. On doors which you seldom if ever use – like the back door – you can stuff the cracks with plastic which will retard air flow and you still will be able to open the door to escape if there is a fire. It is helpful to have some sort of wind break to keep the wind from hitting the doorway directly. You can and most likely should have heavy insulated drapes on the windows to help hold the heat in especially at night. During the day you should have the drapes open so that sun light comes in and you benefit from the solar heat gain. There are plans available to make capturing the sun light easier for heating your home we will not be covering that any deeper as we don’t have enough room to write it here now.
Other points in your house that leak heat are electrical plugs and switches. You can retro fit them with sheet foam to seal the heat in. most of us have vents in the kitchen that are hard to seal. Of course on the other hand you may not want to seal that point as you will want to vent smoke and odors if you burn your dinner. In most bathrooms there is an exhaust vent to get rid of the humidity from showering. I think that the vent should be sealed to hold in the heat. The extra humidity in our area is nice to have as we live in an arid area. During a wet YEAR we might get 15 inches of water. Part of the definition of desert is that you get 10 inches of water annually or less. With a properly insulated and sealed house MOST of your heat can come from ‘waste’ heat of the appliances, lights and occupants. As an example we have the heater turned OFF right now. We had ran the heater about 9 hours ago and it is still 65.7 degrees F in our home.
It is way easier and more economical to warm the person instead of the whole house. Of course dress warmer and even wear a sweeter around home like President Jimmy Carter did in the white house during the 1970s. If you are still chilled after putting on the sweeter, you can use an electric blanket or throw or use a heating pad in your chair and sitting on it. If your hands are cold and you are doing something with your hands like typing a blog post, you can make use of a heat lamp. Right now I am not using the extra heating options as I am sitting here typing with a tee shirt on. As an aside, a few years ago my daughter and I went shopping one evening and she commented that it must be cold out as we both had our winter coats on. I had a windbreaker on and she had her sweet shirt with hood on…… it was minus 30 degrees F outside. ;]
Sleeping warm is easy enough to do. They make electric mattress pads which works better than an electric blanket as heat rises. Of course you can use a few blankets over you to help too.
There was a musical group back when I was much younger called ‘Three Dog Night’, I really liked their music. Historically a way of expressing how cold it got at night was to say how many dogs you had up on the bed with you. Back when we were working in the mother / baby department we would encourage new moms to hold their babies and to have skin to skin contact, aka Kangaroo care, to keep the baby warm. Kangaroo care is the best way to warm up a baby or anyone else. If you are cold at night, snuggling with your mate is a great way to keep warm.