October 25, 2024 • 14 mins
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Prepare to transform your winter routine with essential safety tips that keep your home both cozy and efficient. Ever wondered how to keep your energy bills from skyrocketing during the colder months? Discover practical strategies for winterizing your home, ensuring warmth without waste, and maintaining a safe environment. From inspecting your roof to insulating outdoor pipes and using the right heating equipment, we cover every angle to ensure you’re ready for whatever winter throws your way.
Join me, Esther Kane, as we tackle critical winter safety topics that everyone should consider, not just older adults. Learn why inspecting your furnace and sealing exterior cracks can make a significant difference in your home's comfort and safety. Embrace the peace of mind that comes with being prepared for sudden winter storms and prevent common hazards like falls and burst pipes. So, as you sip your tea and listen along, let’s make this winter season safer and more comfortable for all.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey everyone, welcome back to another podcast from
Aging in Place Directory.
I'm Esther Kane, your hostToday, I thought, since it's
October and we're heading intowell, most of the country is
heading into winter or some formof winter, although I hear that
this winter is going to bewarmer than others, but we'll
(00:23):
see.
But I still thought it would beimportant to talk about some
winter safety tips, because nowis the time to start preparing
for that, not during a winterstorm.
So we're going to be talkingabout some things like
winterizing your home, heatingsafety, and then fall prevention
(00:43):
and and emergency preparedness.
I mean, those are four mainissues that I think, personally,
everyone should be concernedabout, not just older adults.
All right, so let's talk aboutwinterizing your home.
If you're living in a house, oreven a condo or apartment,
townhouse, anything like that,you, you want to talk, you want
(01:06):
to think about winterizing it,making sure that it captures and
keeps the heat as much aspossible, so that you don't have
to run the heater on.
For you know, extensivelythough you build, your gas bill
or electric bill is not so high.
So the very first thing is, youwant to make sure that your
roof doesn't have any missingyour build, your gas bill or
electric bill is not so high.
So the very first thing is youwant to make sure that your roof
(01:28):
doesn't have any missingshingles that could leak when
snow melts.
Now, if you've had any leakageat all, then obviously you know
that it needs to get fixed.
So don't wait for that to getworse.
You want to fix it as soon aspossible and I'm not telling you
to get up on your roof and doit.
(01:48):
Hire a professional, a handyman, whomever can come in and do
that for you.
I do not recommend reallyanyone to get up on their roof
to do it.
Sorry, I still have that coldthat I'm dealing with.
You want to insulate your pipes,especially, of course, ideally
(02:08):
the pipes that are exposedoutdoors, and I'm talking about
the outdoor pipes.
If you have sprinkler pipes oryou know pipes that are up along
your wall that go up to yourfaucets outdoor faucets you want
to cover those faucetsappropriately, and foam pipe
insulation is the most commonand it usually works extremely
(02:30):
well.
A lot of us that have garages,we have pipes in the garages.
You want to make sure thatthose are insulated as much as
possible.
If you have pipes that you knoware behind any cabinetry, like
cabinetry in your garage orcabinetry in your kitchen.
You want to open those cabinetdoors when it gets extremely
(02:53):
cold and I'm talking about justaround freezing or below and
that will help to the heat fromyour home, will help to keep
those pipes from freezing andbursting.
You want to seal any cracks inyour home's exteriors to keep
out the cold air, and Ipersonally used a silicone
(03:17):
sealant.
I had my handyman do that forme, went around the house.
Everywhere that there seemed tobe a little crack, we used a.
He used a silicone sealant andthe reason I like that is
because when it's appliedappropriately, it'll last up to
20 years.
So I'm talking about arounddoors, around windows,
(03:38):
especially around the cornersareas, places where pipes and
wires enter your home, vents forexhaust fans, cracks in porches
and stoops.
One area you want to look at isunderneath your bathroom sinks
and around the toilet areas.
Sometimes when they put inthose pipes on those walls, they
(04:01):
leave a gap there.
You want to make sure that thatis sealed so that heat it
doesn't escape into in there andyou end up paying more money.
You can use underdoor draftstoppers if and where that's
needed to help keep cool air outand to help keep the heat in.
(04:21):
Keep the heat in.
As far as heating safety, youwant to avoid using your oven as
a heater.
That is not meant to do that.
If you find that you have to dothat, then you want to get
yourself an appropriate portableheater that has a timer on it,
has an auto off button timer onit and also, if it gets tipped
(04:46):
over, that it turns off as well.
Most of that.
Most of today's new portableheaters do that.
You want to have your furnaceinspected.
I have my firm.
I have two furnaces, one forupstairs, one for downstairs,
and I have both of theminspected every autumn.
Just had mine done last week inorder to make sure that it's
(05:09):
going to work well in the winter.
I don't want to wait for a coldsnap to happen.
It does get below freezing herein Georgia.
I don't want that to happen andthen have to call someone to
come out because it usually willcost more if it's an emergency
visit.
If you use a fireplace,especially obviously a wood
(05:29):
burning fireplace, you want tomake sure that the chimney is
clean.
I have a gas fireplace and Istill have that inspected every
other year just to make surethat it's clean and working
properly.
You want to install, obviously,carbon monoxide detectors
everywhere to protect yourselfagainst odorous, deadly gas,
(05:52):
especially if you have a gasstove, a gas fireplace, and you
want to keep the temperature nolower than 65 degrees in order
to prevent your pipes fromfreezing, and I'm talking about
the pipes inside your home pipesfrom freezing, and I'm talking
about the pipes inside insideyour home.
As far as fall prevention, thatis a big issue for older adults
(06:13):
especially, or anybody who hasmobility issues during winter
time, especially if you live inan area where there's ice and
snow mostly ice.
We don't get a lot of snow herein Georgia, unless you're up in
the mountains, but we do get alot of snow here in Georgia,
unless you're up in themountains, but we do get a lot
of ice and that is a verydangerous situation.
So one you want to wearappropriate winter footwear with
(06:38):
good traction, non-slip shoesand even if you live in an area
that has a lot of ice, then youdefinitely want to attach
spikeless ice and snow grippertype of things to your shoes for
extra stability on slipperysurfaces and for anyone that
(06:58):
uses a cane.
Attach an ice gripper, a caneor a walker, attach ice grippers
to the tips of those devices topenetrate the ice so that you
can secure a firm grip.
I remember I was working inCharlotte, north Carolina, and I
treated someone who ended upwith a head injury because her
(07:19):
Walker didn't have those icegrips.
She was walking from her frontdoor to her car.
It slipped.
She slipped and hit her head onthe ice sidewalk.
So you definitely don't want todo that.
Put the grippers.
You can get them on amazon.
You want to carry, if you'regoing to be taking a walk
(07:40):
outdoors, a small bag of rock,salt or sand or kitty litter to
sprinkle on many paths that look, you know, extra icy to you or
just icy for better traction,and you want to.
When you're walking, of courseyou want to take short steps
with your feet slightly pointedoutwards and your knees a little
(08:03):
bent, and this will help you towalk a little slower and a
little more carefully over anyicy areas.
Of course you always want tohave your cell phone with you or
some kind of alert device incase you do fall, to contact
someone to help you, in case youdo fall, to contact someone to
help you and you definitelyanother issue.
(08:23):
That may not be necessarily forfall prevention, but if you
want to prevent falls or it'sjust too way too icy or snowy
out there, you wanna have a planfor how to get groceries, so
you wanna look into grocerydelivery services.
Maybe you can use Instacart ormaybe your local grocery store
has delivery services.
(08:43):
You also want to look attelemedicine.
Does your doctor provide anytelemedicine, like a virtual
doctor type of thing, in caseyou cannot get out to the doctor
?
You want to have those thingsalready set up so that you're
not having to scrambling andfigure out how to do those
things when you need them themost.
(09:06):
Okay, so now I want to talkabout emergency preparedness.
Now, I don't know about you,but almost every winter I lose
my power for a few hours, andspringtime too with all the
storms.
But power outages are an issuebecause obviously, without power
you probably don't have heat.
(09:26):
Unless you have a woodfireplace, you probably don't
have a way to recharge yourphone.
So depending on how long thatpower outage is, you could lose
communication abilities.
They obviously not going tohave internet.
So the things you want to do toprepare for that are you can
invest in a backup generator,the Dabson D-A-B-B-S-S-O-N
(09:54):
portable power station is verygood because you can power it by
electricity.
Obviously, you want to have itpowered before power outage.
You can power it with solarenergy and you can power it with
a gas generator, and you canalso power it from your car.
So those are four ways that youcan power it, and you can even
(10:15):
combine some of them, like youcan plug it into an outdoor
outlet and leave it out in thesun so that it gets powered by
both, which means it'll power upa bit faster.
So you can invest in that.
You obviously you want to keepflashlights, batteries and a
battery-powered radio on hand.
Those are always good anyway,and if you probably if you live
(10:38):
in South Florida or any placethat gets a lot of, or any place
in the central part of Americawhere you get a lot of tornadoes
, south Florida, you get a lotof hurricane issues, bad storms.
You already know all of that.
Flashlights, batteries andbattery powered hand radio are a
given in any of those.
(10:59):
If you live in any of thoseareas and you want to stock up
on non-perishable food and water, definitely have a lot of water
on hand and a lot of cannedsoup, tuna, anything that you
don't have to cook clean granolabars, anything like that, paper
plates, paper cups, anythinglike that.
(11:21):
A communication plan is alsoextremely important for any
emergency preparedness.
You want to have a list ofemergency contacts.
Of course you're going to havethat on your phone, but what if
you can't open your phone, ifit's dead, then you want to have
that printed somewhere.
You want to consider some typeof a medical alert system.
If you need help it could beeven contacting your neighbors,
(11:43):
anything at all and you want toarrange for regular check-ins,
and this is where your neighborsand people who are living close
by are very useful.
You want to check in on eachother, make sure that you're
okay, and the reason you'regoing to rely on your neighbors
is in case you can't access yourphone to contact anyone outside
of your immediate area whereyou can walk outside and see if
(12:07):
they're okay.
It could be anything.
It could be placing a symbol onthe window letting your
neighbors around you know thatyou're okay.
If you don't place that symbolby 9 am, then they know
something is wrong or whatevertime that you designate, but
(12:27):
it's a good way to let peoplearound you know that you're
doing all right and that you'resurviving the event as to as
it's happening.
Hopefully we will not have anypower out of just this winter.
I know that that is usually theworst part of any type of storm
, be it winter or a summer storm, hurricane or earthquake or
(12:53):
tornadoes.
Well, I hope these wintersafety tips will keep you safe
and well so that you can enjoyspring and summer and all the
other upcoming seasons in ahealthy manner, and isn't that
what it's all about?
All right, I want to thank youso much for joining me.
Don't forget to subscribe and Iwill see you next time.
Hey everyone, welcome back to another podcast from
Aging in Place Directory.
I'm Esther Kane, your hostToday, I thought, since it's
October and we're heading intowell, most of the country is
heading into winter or some formof winter, although I hear that
this winter is going to bewarmer than others, but we'll
(00:23):
see.
But I still thought it would beimportant to talk about some
winter safety tips, because nowis the time to start preparing
for that, not during a winterstorm.
So we're going to be talkingabout some things like
winterizing your home, heatingsafety, and then fall prevention
(00:43):
and and emergency preparedness.
I mean, those are four mainissues that I think, personally,
everyone should be concernedabout, not just older adults.
All right, so let's talk aboutwinterizing your home.
If you're living in a house, oreven a condo or apartment,
townhouse, anything like that,you, you want to talk, you want
(01:06):
to think about winterizing it,making sure that it captures and
keeps the heat as much aspossible, so that you don't have
to run the heater on.
For you know, extensivelythough you build, your gas bill
or electric bill is not so high.
So the very first thing is, youwant to make sure that your
roof doesn't have any missingyour build, your gas bill or
electric bill is not so high.
So the very first thing is youwant to make sure that your roof
(01:28):
doesn't have any missingshingles that could leak when
snow melts.
Now, if you've had any leakageat all, then obviously you know
that it needs to get fixed.
So don't wait for that to getworse.
You want to fix it as soon aspossible and I'm not telling you
to get up on your roof and doit.
(01:48):
Hire a professional, a handyman, whomever can come in and do
that for you.
I do not recommend reallyanyone to get up on their roof
to do it.
Sorry, I still have that coldthat I'm dealing with.
You want to insulate your pipes,especially, of course, ideally
(02:08):
the pipes that are exposedoutdoors, and I'm talking about
the outdoor pipes.
If you have sprinkler pipes oryou know pipes that are up along
your wall that go up to yourfaucets outdoor faucets you want
to cover those faucetsappropriately, and foam pipe
insulation is the most commonand it usually works extremely
(02:30):
well.
A lot of us that have garages,we have pipes in the garages.
You want to make sure thatthose are insulated as much as
possible.
If you have pipes that you knoware behind any cabinetry, like
cabinetry in your garage orcabinetry in your kitchen.
You want to open those cabinetdoors when it gets extremely
(02:53):
cold and I'm talking about justaround freezing or below and
that will help to the heat fromyour home, will help to keep
those pipes from freezing andbursting.
You want to seal any cracks inyour home's exteriors to keep
out the cold air, and Ipersonally used a silicone
(03:17):
sealant.
I had my handyman do that forme, went around the house.
Everywhere that there seemed tobe a little crack, we used a.
He used a silicone sealant andthe reason I like that is
because when it's appliedappropriately, it'll last up to
20 years.
So I'm talking about arounddoors, around windows,
(03:38):
especially around the cornersareas, places where pipes and
wires enter your home, vents forexhaust fans, cracks in porches
and stoops.
One area you want to look at isunderneath your bathroom sinks
and around the toilet areas.
Sometimes when they put inthose pipes on those walls, they
(04:01):
leave a gap there.
You want to make sure that thatis sealed so that heat it
doesn't escape into in there andyou end up paying more money.
You can use underdoor draftstoppers if and where that's
needed to help keep cool air outand to help keep the heat in.
(04:21):
Keep the heat in.
As far as heating safety, youwant to avoid using your oven as
a heater.
That is not meant to do that.
If you find that you have to dothat, then you want to get
yourself an appropriate portableheater that has a timer on it,
has an auto off button timer onit and also, if it gets tipped
(04:46):
over, that it turns off as well.
Most of that.
Most of today's new portableheaters do that.
You want to have your furnaceinspected.
I have my firm.
I have two furnaces, one forupstairs, one for downstairs,
and I have both of theminspected every autumn.
Just had mine done last week inorder to make sure that it's
(05:09):
going to work well in the winter.
I don't want to wait for a coldsnap to happen.
It does get below freezing herein Georgia.
I don't want that to happen andthen have to call someone to
come out because it usually willcost more if it's an emergency
visit.
If you use a fireplace,especially obviously a wood
(05:29):
burning fireplace, you want tomake sure that the chimney is
clean.
I have a gas fireplace and Istill have that inspected every
other year just to make surethat it's clean and working
properly.
You want to install, obviously,carbon monoxide detectors
everywhere to protect yourselfagainst odorous, deadly gas,
(05:52):
especially if you have a gasstove, a gas fireplace, and you
want to keep the temperature nolower than 65 degrees in order
to prevent your pipes fromfreezing, and I'm talking about
the pipes inside your home pipesfrom freezing, and I'm talking
about the pipes inside insideyour home.
As far as fall prevention, thatis a big issue for older adults
(06:13):
especially, or anybody who hasmobility issues during winter
time, especially if you live inan area where there's ice and
snow mostly ice.
We don't get a lot of snow herein Georgia, unless you're up in
the mountains, but we do get alot of snow here in Georgia,
unless you're up in themountains, but we do get a lot
of ice and that is a verydangerous situation.
So one you want to wearappropriate winter footwear with
(06:38):
good traction, non-slip shoesand even if you live in an area
that has a lot of ice, then youdefinitely want to attach
spikeless ice and snow grippertype of things to your shoes for
extra stability on slipperysurfaces and for anyone that
(06:58):
uses a cane.
Attach an ice gripper, a caneor a walker, attach ice grippers
to the tips of those devices topenetrate the ice so that you
can secure a firm grip.
I remember I was working inCharlotte, north Carolina, and I
treated someone who ended upwith a head injury because her
(07:19):
Walker didn't have those icegrips.
She was walking from her frontdoor to her car.
It slipped.
She slipped and hit her head onthe ice sidewalk.
So you definitely don't want todo that.
Put the grippers.
You can get them on amazon.
You want to carry, if you'regoing to be taking a walk
(07:40):
outdoors, a small bag of rock,salt or sand or kitty litter to
sprinkle on many paths that look, you know, extra icy to you or
just icy for better traction,and you want to.
When you're walking, of courseyou want to take short steps
with your feet slightly pointedoutwards and your knees a little
(08:03):
bent, and this will help you towalk a little slower and a
little more carefully over anyicy areas.
Of course you always want tohave your cell phone with you or
some kind of alert device incase you do fall, to contact
someone to help you, in case youdo fall, to contact someone to
help you and you definitelyanother issue.
(08:23):
That may not be necessarily forfall prevention, but if you
want to prevent falls or it'sjust too way too icy or snowy
out there, you wanna have a planfor how to get groceries, so
you wanna look into grocerydelivery services.
Maybe you can use Instacart ormaybe your local grocery store
has delivery services.
(08:43):
You also want to look attelemedicine.
Does your doctor provide anytelemedicine, like a virtual
doctor type of thing, in caseyou cannot get out to the doctor
?
You want to have those thingsalready set up so that you're
not having to scrambling andfigure out how to do those
things when you need them themost.
(09:06):
Okay, so now I want to talkabout emergency preparedness.
Now, I don't know about you,but almost every winter I lose
my power for a few hours, andspringtime too with all the
storms.
But power outages are an issuebecause obviously, without power
you probably don't have heat.
(09:26):
Unless you have a woodfireplace, you probably don't
have a way to recharge yourphone.
So depending on how long thatpower outage is, you could lose
communication abilities.
They obviously not going tohave internet.
So the things you want to do toprepare for that are you can
invest in a backup generator,the Dabson D-A-B-B-S-S-O-N
(09:54):
portable power station is verygood because you can power it by
electricity.
Obviously, you want to have itpowered before power outage.
You can power it with solarenergy and you can power it with
a gas generator, and you canalso power it from your car.
So those are four ways that youcan power it, and you can even
(10:15):
combine some of them, like youcan plug it into an outdoor
outlet and leave it out in thesun so that it gets powered by
both, which means it'll power upa bit faster.
So you can invest in that.
You obviously you want to keepflashlights, batteries and a
battery-powered radio on hand.
Those are always good anyway,and if you probably if you live
(10:38):
in South Florida or any placethat gets a lot of, or any place
in the central part of Americawhere you get a lot of tornadoes
, south Florida, you get a lotof hurricane issues, bad storms.
You already know all of that.
Flashlights, batteries andbattery powered hand radio are a
given in any of those.
(10:59):
If you live in any of thoseareas and you want to stock up
on non-perishable food and water, definitely have a lot of water
on hand and a lot of cannedsoup, tuna, anything that you
don't have to cook clean granolabars, anything like that, paper
plates, paper cups, anythinglike that.
(11:21):
A communication plan is alsoextremely important for any
emergency preparedness.
You want to have a list ofemergency contacts.
Of course you're going to havethat on your phone, but what if
you can't open your phone, ifit's dead, then you want to have
that printed somewhere.
You want to consider some typeof a medical alert system.
If you need help it could beeven contacting your neighbors,
(11:43):
anything at all and you want toarrange for regular check-ins,
and this is where your neighborsand people who are living close
by are very useful.
You want to check in on eachother, make sure that you're
okay, and the reason you'regoing to rely on your neighbors
is in case you can't access yourphone to contact anyone outside
of your immediate area whereyou can walk outside and see if
(12:07):
they're okay.
It could be anything.
It could be placing a symbol onthe window letting your
neighbors around you know thatyou're okay.
If you don't place that symbolby 9 am, then they know
something is wrong or whatevertime that you designate, but
(12:27):
it's a good way to let peoplearound you know that you're
doing all right and that you'resurviving the event as to as
it's happening.
Hopefully we will not have anypower out of just this winter.
I know that that is usually theworst part of any type of storm
, be it winter or a summer storm, hurricane or earthquake or
(12:53):
tornadoes.
Well, I hope these wintersafety tips will keep you safe
and well so that you can enjoyspring and summer and all the
other upcoming seasons in ahealthy manner, and isn't that
what it's all about?
All right, I want to thank youso much for joining me.
Don't forget to subscribe and Iwill see you next time.
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