While we pride ourselves on getting to our customers promptly when their heat has failed, the fact of the matter is that a house can get very cold quite quickly in the dead of a Minnesota winter. If your furnace has broken down and you’re waiting for heating repair, here are some tips for keeping warm until your technician arrives.
Space Heaters
This is the most obvious solution. We mention it just to give you a safety warning. Some heaters are only meant to be used in open, ventilated areas and produce carbon monoxide that is very dangerous to breathe in enclosed spaces. Only use a heater in your home if it is intended for that use.
Keep Your Remaining Heat In
Use anything you have on hand to close up drafty places around windows, under doors, and anywhere else that your heat might escape. Avoid opening the door as much as possible to retain what heat you have left.
Make Use of the Sun
Keep blinds and curtains open on the windows that are being hit by the sun. This will create the greenhouse effect, magnifying the warmth from the sun and heating that part of your house. Act like a cat and sit in the sunshine to keep yourself warm.
Do Some Baking
Using your oven can help enormously to keep your home warm. Waiting for your technician to come fix your furnace in Chisholm, MN is the perfect time to cook dishes that require a long time in the oven. Pot roast, lasagna, or homemade bread are perfect choices, but anything that uses your oven will help keep you cozy.
Only the food and residual heat from the oven should keep you warm, however. An oven should never be used for heating your home, as this is incredibly dangerous.
Warm Yourself from the Inside
In addition to your freshly baked treats, anything warm you can eat or drink will make a big difference to your body temperature. Tea, cocoa, or soup can give you a lot of comfort when your home is chilly.
Homemade Hand and Foot Warmers
Don’t worry, you don’t need to be handy with a sewing machine for this craft! You can use something as simple as a sock. Fill it with a cup or so of dry rice, corn, beans, flax seeds, or other small natural dry goods, and tie the end. Microwave for a short time—start with 30 seconds and add more time as needed—for a cheap, easy, effective heating pad to warm your hands or feet.
Raise the Humidity
Using a humidifier or boiling a pot of water on the stovetop will increase the amount of water vapor in the air. Although it won’t change the temperature much, it will help your body to feel warmer. Heat leaves your body more quickly in dry air, while humid air won’t cool you as quickly.
Avoid the Problem in the Future
The best way to prevent major furnace breakdowns is by getting annual maintenance. This can cut down on repair needs by as much as 85% while increasing the effectiveness of your furnace and the efficiency with which it operates. It will even help your furnace last longer!
If you’ve got a heating emergency or just want to schedule maintenance to help you avoid this emergency situation, get the help you need right away.
Reach out to Mesaba Heating & Air Conditioning today. Service to you is success to us!