How to insulate your home: some tips for a more comfortable winter
Kyiv • UNN
Experts shared tips on how to insulate your home before the heating season. Recommendations include checking windows, insulating doors, installing heat-reflective screens, and controlling air humidity.
UNN has collected some tips that will help keep apartments warm and comfortable during the winter season. Especially at the beginning of the heating season, when the radiators in apartments are still cold.
Tips for home insulation:
- Check the windows for cracks. Put caulk in the window frames and treat the glass at the joints with silicone sealant. If you have modern double-glazed windows, check whether the windows close tightly.
- Apply caulking to the door. Seal any cracks or crevices in the walls, floor, and ceiling with sealant.
- Move the furniture away from the radiators and draw the curtains. Place heat-reflective screens or homemade reflectors made of aluminum foil and cardboard behind radiators.
- If you can, insulate the facade of your apartment. Or at least the wall that freezes the most. Also insulate the balcony.
- Ventilation can cause heat to escape from rooms. You can reduce losses by using grilles with adjustable openings.
- Together with your neighbors, insulate the entrance, basements, and attics. Insulate pipelines, as well as windows and doors in the foyer and stairwells.
Indoor humidity also plays a role. If the apartment is too dry, a person needs a higher temperature to feel comfortable than when the humidity is normal. Humidity in the range of 40-65% is considered comfortable for humans. You can buy a hygrometer that measures this value and a humidifier.
In addition, it is better to cover windows with curtains made of thick material. However, heating radiators should be open so as not to prevent heat from entering the room. If possible, hang blinds. They will also prevent cold air from entering from the glass.
AddendumAddendum
On October 22, Prime Minister Shmyhal stated that the heating season was already starting in Ukraine . Social infrastructure facilities are being connected to the heat. First of all, hospitals, schools, and kindergartens.
For example, in Kyiv , only social buildings, such as kindergartens, schools, and hospitals, are connected to heat. Residents of apartment buildings save themselves from the cold with warm clothes, hot water bottles, and heaters.
The specific dates of heat supply are determined by weather conditions, according to which community authorities make their decisions.
The Energy Ministry reports that Ukraine has formed sufficient stocks of fuel and lubricants to get through the fall and winter.
Deputy Energy Minister Mykola Kolisnyk stated that only Russian shelling could destabilize the power system . He also predicts that demand will be covered even if electricity consumption increases during cold weather.
