snow-fallen-tree

Even though we are still relatively early in the winter season, everyone knows that Maryland weather can change quickly. Warner Service wants to make sure that our readers are prepared for winter power outages. How do you stay warm if the power goes out during a cold winter storm? Here are some tips to consider:

Try To Use One Room If Possible
If you try to use your entire home as you normally would, your home's temperature is going to drop quickly. Instead, focus your attention on heating just one room of the house. By keeping everyone in a single room, their body heat will help to keep everyone warm. Try to pick a room that gets a lot of natural sunlight or another natural heating source. Ideally, pick a windowed room on the southwest side of your home.

Keep the Warm Air Inside
Like your parents yelled at you as a kid, “we’re not trying to heat the neighborhood!” Try to plug up all those leaks where the heat is seeping out of the room. Stuff towels and small blankets into window sills, door frames and other areas where the heat is leaking out. To best prepare for this step, perform a Home Energy Audit to keep the warm air inside all winter long.

Put A Shower Curtain Over The Windows
You’ll want to keep heat in your room, but natural sunlight is an excellent way to bring in more natural heat. A great item to allow this heat to come inside, but keep the warm air in, is a transparent shower curtain liner.

Remove the shower curtain from the bathroom (without power no one is going to want to take a cold shower anyways) and carefully tape or attach the clear shower curtain to the wall. The natural light can come through the curtain but it prevents hot air from leaving through the window.

Rugs or Carpet
Make sure that heat isn’t escaping through the floor either. Take rugs and mats from around the home and lay them down in your room. Add a few layers between you and the cold floor.

Tents in the Living Room
An out of the ordinary but effective method of staying warm is to set up tents inside your living room. This traps your body heat in an even more confined area inside your living room. Many families will already have a tent, and they are not expensive if you need to purchase one.

Put on a Hat
“[The] reason we lose heat through our head is because most of the time when we’re … in the cold, we’re clothed,” said Richard Ingebretsen, adjunct instructor at the University of Utah School of Medicine. “If you don’t have a hat on, you lose heat through your head, just as you would lose heat through your legs if you were wearing shorts.” So make sure you are completely covered up to keep your body warm.

Leave During the Day
If the snow is not too deep, be sure to utilize other people's heat. Go to a restaurant for dinner, go see a movie, or walk around the mall. Most of these places will have backup generators and will be ready to keep you warm.

Eat Before You Go To Bed
By eating before you go to bed, your body will be digesting during the night time – keeping you a little warmer than normal as you sleep.

Warner Service knows that you can't always predict how the weather is going to act in Maryland, but it is always best to be prepared. Whether that means readying your home for a power outage or getting your HVAC system maintained before it breaks, Warner is here to help. Contact Warner Service if you need any help in planning your winter.

For more information like this, subscribe to the Warner Service blog!

Subscribe To The Blog