A. Wilson Home Inspection Knowledge - Trust - Integrity

Top Home Care Tasks for January Here are some top tips for January that will help you keep your home safer and more energy efficient. 1. CHECK EMERGENCY SUPPLIES January is a good time to double-check that you have the proper emergency supplies on hand in case of winter power outages and emergencies. Fresh emergency supplies that you will want to have readily available include: jugs of fresh water, canned food, batteries, flashlights, candles, a first aid kit, water purification tablets, a manual can opener, matches, IPECAC syrup, and a battery or hand-powered radio. 2. ADJUST YOUR PROGRAMMABLE THERMOSTATS A programmable thermostat can save a homeowner up to $150 per year in energy costs, but statistics show that most people with programmable thermostats don’t get this benefit because they have not programmed them properly. So if you have not yet adjusted the winter settings for your programmable thermostat, you should take a minute now to update them. And if you are not sure (or don’t remember) how to do this, you can usually find online the toll-free phone number for most manufacturers, who can walk you through how to do it. And if you don’t have a programmable thermostat, then January is a good time to consider getting one. 3. BACKFLUSH YOUR WATER HEATER With the weather getting colder outside during January, this means that your water heater has to work harder (since the water coming into your home will be colder). So January is a good month to backflush your water heater, which will help it to maintain its energy efficiency and extend its useful life. Backflushing involves draining a few gallons of water from the bottom of your water heater. You need to be very CAREFUL doing this, as the water will be scalding hot. If you are unsure how to do this task, then you should hire a professional. 4. CONDUCT HOME COMPUTER MAINTENANCE The last task that we suggest for January is to conduct home computer maintenance. Home computers have become an essential part of our day-to-day lives. And with January bringing the increased risk of power surges and outages, now is a good time to make sure that your computer is properly protected. The routine maintenance tasks that are important to do for your home computer include: backing up important files (in at least two places); making sure that you have working surge protectors for your computer and related equipment; if you have an external hard drive for your computer, you should check (or consider adding) an uninterruptible power source for both your computer and your hard drive because a loss of power while operating can corrupt the drive and you'll lose all of your files; updating your anti-virus programs; and defragmenting and repairing your drives (since a disorganized hard drive is more likely to crash). SUMMARY We hope that our suggested tasks for January will enable you to keep your home safer and more energy efficient. And we wish you and your family all the very best for the New Year.