While it may seem like the only thing you need to do to stay safe in cold months is to have your furnace repair check completed prior to the cold months so your furnace works, that’s simply not true. There are many things you can do besides making sure your furnace works properly to stay safe.
Tips to stay safe in the cold
- Make sure your windows remain closed and if you have windows that tend to leak air, use proper window protection such as plastic over your windows. By putting plastic over your windows, you’re trapping cold air before it can enter your home.
This can keep everyone in your home warmer and keep you safe knowing your HVAC machine isn’t needing to work overtime to heat your home.
- Make sure you have a shovel, gloves, a blanket, a bag of food/snacks, and newspaper in your car while driving in the cold. If you end up in the ditch stranded somewhere you’ll need to keep yourself as warm as possible and have an object to try to get your car out of the snow.
Before you attempt to remove snow from around your vehicle, take the newspaper and individually crinkle each page into balls. Then, shove those newspaper balls inside your coat to retain heat. This small action will help prevent hypothermia and keep your body temperature where it needs to be.
- Dress in multiple layers. Anytime you go out into the cold, it’s important you dress in multiple layers. Layers will help retain body heat more than one single coat — even if the coat is made from wool.
When your body heat leaves you, it must travel through every layer of clothing you have on. With multiple layers, this process is slowed so your body heat remains close to your skin and you stay warmer longer.
If you’re inside your home and you feel chilly, it’s important you also dress in layers in your home. Wear thick socks, sweats, sweatshirts, and even hats if you can’t afford to keep your furnace at higher temperatures.
