As we enter the winter season, now is the time to ensure your manufactured home is prepared for snow, ice and cold temperatures. This involves taking purposeful steps to make sure that your home is properly insulated and not vulnerable to damage caused by wintry weather.

Follow this ten-tip guide to ensure that your manufactured home is ready for whatever weather this season brings.

1.Add Heat Tape

Perhaps the most important step in preparing your home for winter is to add heat tape to your pipes. Doing this can prevent your pipes from freezing or bursting in harsh winter temperatures. You can find several online articles on installing and choosing the right type of heat tape to ensure you’re adequately prepared.

2.Reverse Ceiling Fans

Though it’s such a simple fix, reversing your ceiling fans clockwise can have a significant impact on your home’s temperature. When a fan rotates to the right slowly, it pulls cool air up and pushes rising warm air back down, making the room feel warmer and reducing energy costs.

3.Implement Draft Stoppers

To help prevent cold, outside air from entering your home, add draft stoppers to your exterior doors. By adding a stopper that slides under or sits in front of your door, you can block cracks that allow cold air to slip into your home.

4.Test Smoke and CO2 Detectors

Before using your furnace, you should test your smoke and CO2 detectors to see if they have working batteries and if your CO2 detector is within its life expectancy. If your CO2 detector was manufactured after 2009 and is over seven years old, you will want to replace it with a new detector.

5.Drain your Outside Hose

Make sure you’ve installed a frost-free outside faucet, which drains the remaining water when you close the shut-off valve to prevent freezing. You will also want to disconnect and drain your garden hose to prevent freezing and damage to the faucet.

6.Check if your Hot Water Tank is Insulated

If your hot water tank is older, insulate your water tank to reduce standby heat loss and water heating costs. You can do this by wrapping blankets or pre-cut jackets around the water heater. Be sure to find an online tutorial to guide you through the installation process.

7.Seal Older Windows with Plastic

If your manufactured home doesn’t have double-pane windows, cold air is likely seeping into your home and creating a draft. Signs that air may leak through are rattling windows, peeling paint around the frame, and visible gaps or noticeable dust or debris around your windows. By installing window kits with just a hairdryer, scissors and a tape measure, you can prevent outdoor air from entering your home.

8. Check if your Skirting is Secure

While it is always important to have secured skirting around your manufactured home, the importance is amplified in the winter. Your skirting serves to protect your pipes and prevent pests from finding shelter under your home, so you’ll want to fix any damages before the most bitter winter weather arrives.

9. Inspect your Heating System

You should thoroughly inspect your heat pump or furnace to ensure warmth and safety this winter season. If you have a gas furnace, your inspection should include checking the vents for blockages, tightening or replacing malfunctioning electrical connections and checking the heat exchanger, among several other steps. If you have a heat pump, you’ll want to check ducts for leaks and damages, inspect refrigerant levels and inspect the blower motor, and perform various other checks.

Check the U.S. Department of Energy’s recommendations to ensure you perform a thorough inspection.

10. Remove the Window AC Unit

Typically, your window AC is a cold spot during the winter, raising your heating expenses. If you remove your window and seal it for the winter season, you can prevent inefficient heating and easily remount the unit in the spring.

If removing the AC unit seems too effortful, you can also seal the window air conditioner by covering the AC unit with a plastic bag and heavy fabric cover and applying strips of foam to insulate gaps between the unit and the window itself.

Adapted from MobileHomeLiving.org