Tips for prepping your home for bitter temperatures - KTTC

ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – Frigid temperatures are headed for Southeast Minnesota and Northeast Iowa, so it’s time to ensure your home is prepped for some bitterly cold nights.

Of course, this weather isn’t new for the Midwest, but some HVAC and plumbing experts are giving some reminders. One of the most important things to remember is preventative maintenance is key when prepping your home.

This means keeping your water moving to avoid frozen pipes and checking if your furnace filter has been changed in the last three months in order to avoid a plugged furnace. This will keep your home air quality high and your energy bills low.

“That’s really going to help with everything in the house and again back to indoor air quality, the health of the house and also yourself. If it gets to dry it can cause some issues for your house and your own health as well,” Haley’s Comfort project manager Bob Speedling said.

Experts compare changing your furnace’s filter to changing the oil in your car. If you don’t it will lead to serious problems down the road, like a plugged filter.

Another concern of freezing temperatures is the air quality inside your home, one option for maintaining good air quality is buying a humidifier. they say the humidity levels in your home should be between 30-35%.

Making sure your furnace is working properly is just one part of prepping your home for bitter temperatures, you should also take preventative measures for the pipes in your home.

“Kitchen sink lines and even the water supply lines will freeze up on cold nights. We encourage everyone to keep the cabinet doors open down below so the warm air can travel up through the cabinet area and you’re not trapping a bunch of cold air into that,” Jetter Clean owner Lee Cummings said.

Many people believe letting your faucet drip is a great way to prevent your pips from freezing, but these experts say in the longer stretches of freezing temps, a great tactic is to run a garden hose away from your house to keep the water moving.

“You are better off running a garden hose because if you go to work, you could come home to a heck of a mess because your pipes have frozen and you’ve been gone all day, you’ll flood your home,” Cummings said.

If the freezing temps get the best of your home some safety reminders are to never use a stove top or oven to heat your home and let the sun in by opening curtains or blinds when the sun is out to warm your home.