How to Prepare Your Home for Winter in Oregon
Author: Bill Hoelzer / Read Time: Six Minutes
Here's how to know if your home is prepared for the winter here in Oregon:
You feel warm and cozy;
Your energy bills aren’t breaking the bank;
You have clean air, free from mold and mildew;
You don’t have dangerous ice dams (Central Oregon).
However, you have opportunity for improvement if:
A room or floor of your home gets consistently colder
You notice occasional drafts of cold air
You smell mold or notice condensation on your windows
Ice dams build up at the edges of your roof (Central Oregon)
In this article, we walk through each of the most common problems and solutions, so that you feel ready for whatever comes our way this winter season.
Not sure where to start?
Your best bet is to give us a call at (541) 330-8767, or schedule a home energy audit online. With a home energy audit, you get a prioritized list of upgrades, complete with pricing, cash incentives, and available tax credits.
Schedule a Home Energy Audit
Preparing Home for Winter: Cold Areas
The Problem: Cold Room(s) or Level of Your Home
Is there an area of your home that gets noticeably colder in the winter, then hotter in the summer? Most homeowners in Oregon notice the biggest difference between the temperature upstairs and the temperature on the main floor of the home.
It feels like this:
During the winter months, the temperature upstairs drops by 5° to 10° relative to the main floor. Then when summer comes around, the temperature upstairs jumps by 5° to 10° even with central air conditioning.
If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. We hear about temperature differences more than almost anything else from our clients in Portland and Central Oregon.
The Solution: Insulation + Zonal Heating and Cooling
To even out temperature differences, we typically recommend a combination of insulation and air sealing as well as a zonal heating and cooling system - typically a ductless heat pump.
Do you need insulation? Take a look at your unfinished attic space. Does it look more like the first photo or the second? If it looks more like the first photo, then insulation will definitely help you get a more consistent temperature at home.
In many cases, insulation and air sealing will help, but they won’t be enough. You may also need to add a ductless heat pump, which will give you complete control over the temperature in a room or area of your home.
For a deep dive on temperature differences, please read our full article: Why is My Upstairs So Hot (Summer) and Cold (Winter)?
Prepare Your Home for Winter: Drafts
The Problem: Drafts in your Home
You get drafts when cold outdoor air enters your home through gaps and cracks. A home energy audit is one of the most effective ways to find the air gaps that cause drafts.
During an energy audit, we run a blower door test to measure exactly how much air is moving through your home. A blower door test also exaggerates the normal drafts in your home. This allows us to easily find them with an infrared camera.
An infrared camera works best during the winter months, when cold air entering your home shows up a dark blue, and the warm conditioned air in your home appears in yellows and reds.
The Solution: Air Sealing and Weather Stripping
When we do a home energy audit with a blower door test, we get a baseline for the amount of air leakage in your home.
This tells us exactly how much air sealing to do. Our goal is to minimize drafts and cold spots without making your home too tight. If your home is too tight, you could have issues with moisture, mold, and other indoor air pollutants.
With drafts in particular, we find that it’s important to focus on windows and doors. You’ll want to caulk air gaps in your windows, and add weather stripping to your doors.
Preparing a Home for Winter: Mold and Condensation
The Problem: Too Much Moisture
Too much moisture is the root cause of mold, mildew and condensation in the home.
Molds commonly grow around leaks or areas where moisture builds up. They thrive on paper, cardboard, wood, ceiling tiles, and other porous materials. Molds also grow in dust, paints, wallpaper, insulation, drywall, carpet, fabric, and upholstery.
Exposure to damp and moldy environments can cause a range of health effects - from none at all to severe allergic reactions. Most people experience symptoms like a stuffy nose, wheezing, or itchy eyes or skin.
The Solution: Source Control and Ventilation
It almost goes without saying that if you have a leak in your home, the first thing to do is to stop the leak.
It’s critical that you quickly fix any leaks in your roof, windows, or pipes. If you experience flooding, use a wet vacuum (like a Shop-Vac) to remove any remaining water, then throughly clean the area with 24 to 48 hours.
Scrub surfaces that can be cleaned (e.g. wood, tile, and stone) with soapy water and a brush. Thoroughly clean all hard surfaces (e.g. flooring, molding, wood and metal furniture) with water and dish soap. If you have a fan, AC or dehumidifier, use it to help the surfaces dry after cleaning.
Proper ventilation is the key to maintaining a healthy air in your home over months and years. You have lots of options when it comes to ventilation. If you’re on a budget, start with a new bathroom fan, like the Panasonic WhisperGreen. We can configure the Panasonic WhisperGreen fan to kick on when the air in your home reaches a certain level of humidity.
Learn more about other Long-Term Solutions to Improve Indoor Air Quality, such as a whole-home air purifier or energy recovery ventilation (ERV). Of course, you’re always welcome to call with questions: (541) 330-8767.
How to Prepare Your Home for Winter: Ice Dams
The Problem: Warm Roof Melts Snow
Ice dams are a real problem in Central Oregon.
An ice dam is a ridge of ice that forms at the edge of a roof and prevents melting snow (water) from draining off the roof. The water that backs up behind the dam can leak into the home, causing damage to the ceilings, walls, floors, and insulation. Ice dams commonly collapse rain gutters.
What causes an ice dam to form?
Ice dams typically form after a heavy snowfall when warm air in the attic melts the snow on the roof. Water running down the roof refreezes at the colder edge of the roof, forming a mound of ice. The ice then traps meltwater, which seeps under the shingles and drip into the house, causing damage.
The Solution: Air Sealing and Attic Insulation
How do you prevent ice dams? Keep your attic and roof cold. After it snows, a cold roof will maintain a thick layer of snow. A warmer roof will tend to have icicles hanging from the eaves.
The combination of air sealing and attic insulation will help to keep your roof cold. It creates a clear separation between the warm air inside your house and the cold air outdoors.
Please note that you could still get ice dams even after sealing air leaks and adding attic insulation. By analogy, a person could still have a heart attack after following their doctor’s advice to eat a healthy diet. Our homes, just like our bodies, or complex systems.
To talk about your home and how you can prepare for winter in Oregon, please feel free to give us a call anytime: (541) 330-8767. We’re happy to help.