What makes a home feel cosy, comfortable, and inviting during the cold winter months? Warmth would be on top of that list, of course, along with a few other things that we will discuss next.
Indoor Heating
Once temperatures start hovering close to that freezing point, maintaining comfortable temperatures inside is the first thing that we should concern ourselves with. More often than not, this proves to be a difficult task, despite having a functioning boiler. Common issues such as the following are signs that you should really consider shifting to a newer model:
- Noisy boilers emit whistling, gurgling, banging, whirring, choking and clunking sounds.
- The yellow flame of doom, which indicates formation of the silent killer, carbon monoxide.
- Cold spots, uneven heating, inadequate heating, and in worse case scenarios, ineffective heating.
- Hot water turns cold in the middle of a winter bath.
- Frequent water leaks and flooding.
- Higher than before heating costs with a sudden rise.
Shift to an all-in-one air-to-water heat pump with high energy exchange efficiency, and it should solve most, if not all of these problems at once. To find the best all-in-one air-to-water heat pumps in Ireland, pay a visit to https://www.bpcventilation.ie/blog/heat-pumps-ireland/.
Winter Rugs
In case you don’t have any carpeting and use rugs instead, that is a sound strategy which allows us to maintain a cleaner, healthier home. However, regular rugs will not get the job done if you live in a cold part of Ireland. Bring out the thicker, plush, and soft area rugs to add more warmth to your home. They will also act as insulating surfaces, trapping the heat, instead of absorbing it like hardwood floors tend to do. Choose sisal or wool if you wish to keep things natural, but polysilk is also a decent option.
Double-Paned Windows
Glass cannot provide excellent insulation, of course, but we don’t want to completely block our windows either. This is why most homes in the UK and Ireland region already have double-paned, aka double-glazed windows. Two glass panes are used to manufacture the double-glazed windows, separated by either a complete vacuum or an inert gas. This completely nullifies any chances of heat loss through convection. The pane outside is unable to absorb heat from the pane inside, as inert gases/complete vacuum does not allow that. It should reduce your heating costs quite significantly as a result of the improved insulation.
Ventilation
Lastly, keep the indoor environment healthy and free of any lingering stench by adding a mechanical ventilation and heat recovery system (MVHR) to your home. It will keep your home from feeling and smelling stuffy, while eliminating the massive heat loss caused by opening windows.
Finally, experts highly advise checking for gaps in insulation and mending them well before the winter months arrive. Check for leaks in the attic and the closets especially. Also, not even double-glazed windowpanes can stop the draft coming in from gaps between the window frame and the wall. If there are any such gaps, seal them up with insulation tape.
