While many Ohioans are preparing to gather with friends and family to celebrate another holiday season, a lot of us who plan to host these gatherings are in preparation mode as well — preparing our abodes for fun-filled festivities in the coming weeks.
Anyone who’s ever hosted a holiday party probably grasps some of the challenges involved in making their special shindig just right — and maintaining the right temperature that keeps everyone comfortable and lively throughout the night. Keeping everyone cozy can be complicated because whenever you put a group of people under a single roof, you’re destined to have at least one person who becomes too hot or too cold. During the winter months this is especially true, and especially at larger gatherings.
If you are looking to find that ideal middle ground that’s comfortable for everyone, we at Newark-Heath Heating & Cooling, put together the following list of our Top 12 Holiday Party Heating Tips:
Top 12 Holiday Party Heating Tips:
- Communicate with everyone. If your goal is to keep your guests comfortable during your gathering while at the same time preventing them from adjusting your thermostat when you aren’t looking, tell them so in a kind and polite way. Also, because you have multiple people under the same roof, you should mention that compromise is essential to everyone’s comfort and communication is key.
- Don’t forget your furnace maintenance! If you have not yet had a professional come out to service your furnace this winter, it’d be a really good idea to do so before your holiday party. Seasonal furnace maintenance guarantees your system will run at its best all winter long, including during your gathering and after, and it gives us the opportunity to check for things that might be going wrong, to identify them before they become worse or cause a breakdown. In other words, there is no substitute for the benefits of this service.
- Switch ceiling fans on “reverse” mode. By switching the rotation of your ceiling fans to their reverse mode setting, they are able to circulate air much better and propel your warm air, which is rising, back downward towards the floor level. This maximizes heat in the home and results in a more evenly heated atmosphere, which is a good thing for your party or gathering.
- Check furnace filters. If necessary, replace them. Because they need checked every month during the winter, it’s important to make sure the air filters in your furnace are clean, fresh and in good shape before your get-together. Doing so ensures proper airflow, which is crucial to maintain all winter long.
- Give furnace and vents plenty of room. It is imperative, for safety reasons, to guarantee the areas around all of our heat sources are free and open with plenty of room for proper airflow. This means keeping them free of storage and any sort of clutter — and expressly anything flammable — all year long. Because heating sources and air vents can get covered or cluttered when our homes are packed full of friends, family and other guests, we suggest keeping this in mind during your gathering and taking steps to make sure they don’t get crowded or covered. All heating devices must always have proper space and adequate airflow.
- Monitor your temperature levels. If you’re doing your cooking while your guests are arriving, things can heat up in a hurry. Knowing this, it’d be wise to keep an eye on your home’s temperature levels as your night unfolds. If you have a smart thermostat, this will be easy because you can check and change its settings via your smartphone from anywhere at any time. If you don’t own a smart thermostat, installing one would make an amazing Christmas gift to yourself. Smart thermostats and Wi-Fi Thermostats are very affordable; they don’t cost much; they are very easy to install and they pay for themselves in savings in no time.
- Put out blankets for guests. As previously mentioned, we all know people who get cold no matter how much you turn up the heat. For these visitors, we suggest setting out blankets. Let everyone know they can be used if anyone gets cold.
- Cook before the big event. We’ve touched on this already: During holiday parties cooking can heat things up in a hurry. If you would like to avoid letting your home become a steam room that turns your gathering into a sauna party, try to cook as much of your food ahead of time as possible. You could use food warmers, warming trays or heat lamps to keep the food warm and you can also keep those in the garage, or away from the party.
- Make a fire in usable fireplaces. For added holiday ambiance that can curb energy consumption during your gathering, we suggest building a fire safely in your fireplace, if you have a working fireplace. With a festive fire aflame in the background amidst a house full of visitors, you’ll have no problem taking your thermostat setting down a few notches and no one will know the difference.
- Installing a whole-home humidifier. Utilizing a whole-home humidifier will make your entire house feel more comfortable during cold and dry months of winter, which is going to be helpful when it’s time for your big holiday party. As we all know, during the wintertime the air in our homes dries out drastically so humidifiers help your indoor air retain heat a lot better. This makes heating a lot easier for your furnace, enabling you to adjust your thermostat to a lower setting without sacrificing anyone’s comfort. Humidifiers also reduce or eliminate static electricity in the air, which keeps your guests comfortable.
- Make sure windows are latched or locked. Keeping your windows latched, or better yet locking them, will form a tighter seal that will minimize air drafts that allow cold air in and warm air out. Additionally, locking/latching them should serve as a firm reminder to your guests that you don’t want them opening your windows.
- Break out those old space heaters — but do so safely. If you have rooms or certain zones in your house that are typically colder than the others, space heaters are a good way to keep people comfortable if those areas are going to be used during your gathering. Keep in mind, however, this is a temporary solution. If your home heating system isn’t evenly heating your entire home, it is almost certain there is some kind of HVAC problem somewhere. These sorts of problems can be expensive if not identified early on. If this is going on in your home, you should give us a call right away so we can discuss it.
Don’t Delay Contacting Us For Any Issues!
If you are having issues with your furnace, or if you are interested in finding out more about any of the products and services we touched on above — such as seasonal maintenance, smart thermostats, humidifiers, or full system replacement, please call Newark-Heath Heating & Cooling today at 740-212-5849, or schedule an appointment now by clicking here!
