Winterize Your Washington Home
When your heating system and water heater operate without a glitch, you may not see value in winterizing your Fircrest home.
After all, your heat pump or furnace takes the chill off cold November days while your water heater warms your morning showers to the perfect temperature.
With all systems working as expected, is winterizing worth your time and effort?
Professional Winterizing Advice for Washington Homeowners
As your local experts in plumbing, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), we at Resicon LLC assure you it is, and we recommend you add it to your fall to-do list. Our qualified plumbers and technicians can even help you with some of the winter HVAC prep and plumbing tips we have compiled to keep your home cozy and efficient through the cold, damp winter.
Winterizing is taking preventative measures to help your Fircrest, home stay warm and efficient during cold weather. It enhances comfort and lowers utility bills by cutting energy consumption. It also safeguards your home and family from disasters such as carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning and frozen pipes that burst.
Preparing your home now can prevent future disasters and put you on the path to energy savings.
Winterizing Your HVAC System
Create a strategy and stick with it. Here are a handful of do-it-yourself winterizing tips you can tackle without professional help:
Air Filter: Your HVAC system will struggle to heat your home if the air filter is dirty and clogged. A dirty air filter restricts airflow to your system and fails to adequately trap debris, allowing it to circulate through your heating equipment and into your living space. Get into the habit of inspecting your air filter every month.
Consult your heating system instruction guide for recommended filter size, thickness, and replacement frequency. A clean filter will improve system performance.
Air Vents: Clean the registers and grilles covering your air vents to remove dust. First, turn off your HVAC system. Then, remove the vent grilles or registers and vacuum them. You can soak them in hot, soapy water and use a sponge or cloth to wipe off the remaining dirt. Rinse the covers and allow them to dry before reinstalling them. Switch on the HVAC system.
Dust, pet dander, and other allergens can accumulate inside your air ducts and blow into your living space when your furnace or heat pump turns on, lowering indoor air quality (IAQ). To remove contaminants from your air ducts, schedule a professional cleaning every few years.
HVAC technicians, including our experts at Resicon LLC, have the experience, knowledge, and professional tools to clean and sanitize your ductwork properly. Prepare for winter holiday entertaining by scheduling a cleaning today!
Outdoor Heat Pump Unit: Remove leaves and other debris around your heat pump’s outdoor unit to provide better airflow. Do not cover the equipment. The unit’s defrost cycle will remove ice that may develop in cold weather.
If your heat pump is over 15 years old, losing efficiency, and frequently in need of repairs, consider replacing it with a new system. Removing debris around the outdoor unit will not extend the lifespan of a unit that is on its last legs.
Let us recommend a new heat pump that will improve comfort, save on energy consumption, and suit your budget. Our fall special offers a $600 savings on a new system. Combine that with a 30 percent tax credit up to $2,000, and replacing your outdated heat pump before winter makes good financial sense.
Professional HVAC Solutions
Your HVAC winterizing strategy may include a few complex winter prep measures that require professional expertise. These tips can increase your safety, energy efficiency, and comfort:
HVAC Tune-Up: A fall tune-up is one of the best ways to prepare for winter weather. It identifies potential problems before they intensify and lead to a system breakdown. A professional can fix those issues, replace worn components, clean your system, and ensure it operates at peak efficiency.
A professional furnace tune-up includes a safety check to prevent carbon monoxide and natural gas leaks, heat exchanger cracks, and electrical problems.
Ductwork: ENERGY STAR® says approximately 20 to 30 percent of the air that moves through your ductwork escapes through holes, cracks, and poorly connected ducts.
The air escapes into your basement, attic, or crawlspace, impacting your comfort and hiking utility bills.
Let our Resicon LLC pros seal your air ducts and ensure warm air flows into your living areas, not in walls or other unoccupied spaces.
Thermostat: Consider installing a programmable or smart thermostat to save energy by lowering the temperature when you are away from home or asleep.
With a programmable thermostat, you can set temperature changes on a schedule. Some smart thermostats automatically adjust the temperature in your Tacoma, WA, home based on your temperature preferences and building occupancy. Thermostats with Wi-Fi capability are accessible from an app on your smartphone.
We can install a thermostat that suits your comfort needs year-round.
Winterizing Your Plumbing
You do not have to be a licensed plumber to prepare your outdoor hoses, hose bibs, and indoor pipes for winter. Try these do-it-yourself tips for winterizing your plumbing system:
Hose and Bibs: Protect your garden hose by disconnecting it from its outdoor bib. Drain and store it in your garage or shed. Turn off the water supply to each outdoor faucet and hose bib. Drain the outdoor hose bibs and faucets, then cover them with insulating caps available at hardware and home improvement stores. The covers will help keep the valves and their attached pipes from freezing.
Indoor Pipes: Apply pipe insulation to pipes exposed to the cold in unheated basements, attics, and crawl spaces.
Seal Cracks: Are there holes and cracks in your home that could jeopardize nearby pipes? Caulk areas near plumbing to prevent cold air from freezing pipes.
A professional plumber can handle more complex winterizing tasks. These are a few we recommend you schedule before winter:
Sprinkler System: Before a hard freeze, it is crucial to drain the system, shut off the water supply, and disconnect outdoor valves. Our plumbers can winterize your outdoor sprinkler system and ensure it is ready for use in the spring.
Water Heater: Let a professional flush the tank and inspect the pressure relief valve. In addition to water heater maintenance, consider scheduling a plumbing inspection. It can identify leaks, weak pipes, and other problems.
Our whole-home plumbing inspection can give you peace of mind and costs just $49.99.
Sump Pump: One of our Resicon technicians can ensure it works correctly and will prevent basement flooding. Consider adding a backup battery to operate your sump pump if the power goes out during a heavy rainstorm.
Start Winterizing Today!
Let Resicon handle the heavy lifting while you apply do-it-yourself tips to winterize your Fircrest, home. Schedule plumbing or HVAC maintenance today. Call us at 253-527-7374 or request service online.