WINTERIZING

Michael Holigan: Already this season cold arctic air has dumped snow in the Rockies and brought freezing temperatures to the Midwest. Across the country homeowners are turning up the heat, but if you haven't taken steps to winterize your home, your utility bill may deliver a hard, cold reality. You know how you bundle up to go outside and face frigid winter weather? The idea is to keep your body heat from escaping. Well, that's the same thing you want to do when you winterize your house. You want to make sure the furnace is heating efficiently. More about that in a minute. If you're not sure how that cold air is getting into your house there's an easy way to check it out. All you need is a hair dryer, a candle and one friend. Have the friend light the candle and stand inside. Fire up the hair dryer on the other side and guide the air stream like this along the area that should be sealed. The places where the air is getting in the candle will flicker or go out. Now that we've found the leaks around the windows and doors, it's time to go outside. First we're going to caulk the windows. You want to lay a good solid bead actually all the way around the window, not just where you saw air leaks. Now the wrong thing to do, and I see it happen all the time on homes, is to come back and run your finger through the caulk to try to make it look better. What matters is is that the caulk's efficient and if you run your finger through it you're making it very thin and it's no longer efficient. Around your doors to keep them airtight you need a good quality weather-stripping. Here we've got a real nice piece of rubber. It's mounted in place and it's going to be hard to remove it. It's got a good edge here. If you don't around your door you need a weather-stripping that's inexpensive and easy to put up. Some of the best is foam. Actually just sticks in place. Very inexpensive. To keep air from blowing underneath the door install a rubber strip that screws into place. Attach inexpensive foam plates to outlets on exterior walls. And protect against frozen pipes by spending a buck or two for a Styrofoam cone that fits over outside faucets. Now that the heat can't get out make sure your furnace is producing heat efficiently. It's especially important to have a gas furnace check every winter because it can malfunction and spew deadly carbon monoxide gas into your home.

Butch Miller: I'm looking in to see if you've got rust, just how much rust we have in here. Your pilot is a little bit dirty and burning with kind of a white flame instead of a good blue flame. Basically we just need to do a little bit of maintenance on it.

MH: The maintenance involves the technician vacuuming around the turned off burners to remove dirt and rust that keeps the furnace from burning properly. While you can light the pilot yourself, you should let the technician take care of adjustments. Here are two things that every homeowner can do, however, whether you have a gas or electric furnace. Set your thermostat at 70 degrees. Each degree warmer can add five percent to your heating bill. And change your air filter every month.

Susan Walls: What does it look like?

BM: We have a filter that looks like should have been changed a while back. Looking at the two here see how that one has gotten pretty dirty there.

MH: You can pick up most filters at grocery stores for less than a dollar.

BM: 'Cause if you run a dirty filter, you know, this unit can only put out whatever air it takes in. And as this begins to clog it does not let the air through so it doesn't put out what it's supposed to. And then it just becomes very inefficient.

MH: And inefficient furnace cost you money on your utility bill. It could also cost you your life. That's why heating professionals check for carbon monoxide that may be escaping into your house. Because it's odorless you may not know it's there.

BM: You're ready for winter.

SW: Thank you.

MH: In this case the homeowner spends about $100.00 for a service call. But the tuned up furnace and the tips are likely to save her a whole lot more.

SW: Oh, yes. It made a big impression. Everybody wants to save money. Me included.

 

Episode 56 1997 - 98 Season

| Kitchen Makeover | Winterizing | Roll-Out Kitchen Trays | Renting vs. Owning |

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