Stop Heat Loss In Your Home: How To Keep Drafty Rooms In Your House Warm And Toasty

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If every room in your home receives the same amount of heat from your furnace, you may feel more comfortable this winter season. But if one or more rooms lack enough warmth, you may want to check the rooms' vents and windows for problems prior to calling in the experts. Here are some tips you can use to keep every drafty room in your house warm and toasty this cold season.

Redirect the Vents' Grills

Rooms that don't get warm enough may have problems with their vents. In most cases, the vents may have clogs or blockages from pet dander, hair, dirt, and dust. But there are some problems you might not consider – and that's poorly directed vent grills. If you place or move the grills in the wrong direction, it may prevent proper heat circulation within your rooms.

For example, grills lined up horizontally with the floor may distribute heated air across the ceiling. This grill placement may not warm up the area closer to the floor. That's because warm air moves upward and stays along the ceiling's foundation. The colder air stays near the floors, which may create cold drafts.

You can remedy this issue by redirecting the grills' openings so that they face the floor. This action may also open up the vents' openings completely, which distributes heat quicker and more efficiently. In addition, these things may happen:

  • The heat may push the cold air near the floor up and toward the ceiling. Once the cold air reaches the ceiling, the warm air that's already there may heat it up a bit.
  • The heated air from the ceiling may slowly travel downward and help keep the floors warm.
  • The heated rooms may prevent your furnace from working overtime to remove any cold drafts. Rooms that lack sufficient heat may trigger your furnace to stay on longer than it needs to. It does this in order to remove as much cold air from the house as possible.

In addition, you may want to turn on a ceiling fan in each drafty room. You should make sure that the fans turn clockwise to redistribute the ceilings' warmed air toward the floor. After following these tips, go ahead and check your windows for problems.

Draft-proof Your Windows

Even if you winterize your windows, you can still miss a few openings or leave some areas unsealed. These unprotected places may allow cold air to seep into the rooms unnoticed. One thing you may want to do is to take a thin piece of paper and slowly move it along the interior and exterior frames, as well as the trims of the rooms' windows. If you have leakages anywhere in these places, the paper may flutter or move from cold or heat air drafts.

If heat in the home escapes out into the outdoor environment, you might notice the paper move on the exterior side of the windows. If you have cold drafts coming into the home, the paper will move on the interior side of the windows. You can fix these issues by using caulking and weatherstripping materials to seal out cold air and keep in hot air.

Here's what you do:

  • Place the caulking material around the top and bottom windowsills with a small knife.
  • Be sure to use one of the knife's flat sides to smooth out the caulk. It'll ensure that the material dries to a strong seal.
  • Insert weatherstripping along the sashes of your drafty windows. Use scissors or a sharp knife to cut the material down to the right size. This prevents any lifting in the weatherstripping when the wind blows, or when the window frames contract from the cold weather.

Also, add weatherstripping to the floorboards of each room as a precautionary step against any drafts that may come through these locations.

If you have any more questions about how to secure your coldest rooms, contact a professional HVAC specialist for more assistance. The specialist may inspect your home and provide the best options for keeping it warm and toasty during the winter months ahead. Continue to read more about what professionals can do for you.

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