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Preparing Your Home For Winter

Today, 1 June, marks the beginning of New Zealand’s winter. That means temperatures will drop and it is also likely that more rain will fall in the coming three months, although New Zealand has already had a significant amount of rain this year.

Now is a good time to make a series of checks and home improvements, if you have not done so already.

It is a good idea to check your smoke alarms, as lighting fires and using heaters raises the risk of having a fire in your house. Make sure the alarms are working properly and change the batteries if you have not done this recently. Make sure there is a smoke alarm in every room where a person sleeps.

Stopping cold air from outside cooling down your home will make for a much more comfortable winter.

You can use draught stoppers around doors and windows.

thermal lining to drapes, can also make a significant difference in terms of keeping your home warm.

Now is also a good time to make sure the filters in your heat pumps have been cleaned, if you use heat pumps.

If you use a wood burner make sure the chimney has been swept. Blockages that can build up in chimneys can and do cause fires.

When heating your home, the drier the air is the more efficient your heating will be, as it takes a lot more energy to warm the water content of the atmosphere in your home than the gas content of the air. It is worth investigating dehumidifiers or installing systems that take drier air from your ceiling and pump it into the house. Both HRV and DVS provide these systems. Another good action you can take is to make sure your gutters are clean.