WINTER IS COMING! ARE YOU READY?
Most of us leave the things we don’t like to do until last, be it Christmas shopping, change tires or check or ensure your electrical heaters are functioning correctly.
There’s nothing worse than hitting the christmas tyre rush and waiting 4-5 hours to change your tires, causing you to miss work or other engagements. So why not plan ahead. Same applies to verifying if your homes electrical system is ready for winter.
When it comes to Christmas shopping we are all good and creating shopping lists/ to do lists. If we can manage to have a Christmas to do list why not create a winter to do list for our homes! We suffer through Montreal’s long harsh cold winter so it’s important to have a safe, warm and comfortable home to relax in. Below is a list of things to help prevent common electrical and other problems that can ruin your already harsh winter
Here are 10 things you should do before winter starts
- Have an electrician do a quick electrical checkup of your homes service an panel ; visual inspection of your homes electrical service entry; remove electrical panel cover, tighten connections and inspect for any visible corrosion of burning; Check power to all electrical baseboard and convector heaters.
- Schedule an appointment for furnace maintenance. Have your furnace checked out before winter really hits!
- Check & test smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms, replace batteries if necessary. Check expiration date. They have a limited lifespan!
- Weatherproof your windows and doors. Replace weather stripping to keep warm air in and cold air out!
- Change your old rotary dial thermostats to new electronic thermostats. This helps save you money and keeps your home more comfortable.
- Change your tyres to winter tyres it’s the law from December 15th-March 15th.
- Vacuum all your baseboard heaters to remove the dust that has accumulated while the heaters were off.
- Clean your gutters, remove all debris to prevent water from freezing and damaging them.
- Turn off all outside taps and remove hoses to prevent water from freezing and burst pipe or damaging hose.
- If your water heater performs efficiently, it can save you money during the winter. Be sure to check the area around the water heater, ensuring it is warm as possible.