My toilet is partially flushing on its own about every 30 minutes. I’ve noticed my water bill has gone up also. I checked the flapper ball chain and it doesn’t appear to need adjusting. What other things can I try?
Toilet Flushing On Its Own
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How To Weather The Winter
Winter’s tough on any house’s plumbing. This article gives you some tips on regular maintenance during the winter months to make sure that your pipes don’t freeze and cost you a bundle on repairs.
Every winter, your plumbing takes a beating. The main winter plumbing problem is frozen pipes. When pipes freeze and burst, it causes a terrible mess that can be quite costly. In addition to damage to your pipes, you may also have water damage to your home and this can cause further problems.
The best way to solve the problem is to prevent it from happening in the first place. If you can do this, you’ll save lots of money on repairs to your home. Here are a few winter prevention tips to keep your pipes healthy and flowing right.
-Leave The Heat On
Keep your home warm throughout the winter and you won’t have pipes freezing and bursting inside. Of course, this raises another problem – what about your electricity bill? You don’t have to keep your home in high temperatures; just make sure that the temperature inside doesn’t get too cold. You should also take measures to ensure that your windows and doors are properly sealed. Cold air from outside is another major culprit in freezing pipes.
-Let Them Drip
Make sure that you turn on every faucet occasionally and let it drip for a while. You don’t have to waste too much water; just a little is fine. Faucets and fixtures that you don’t use too often are the most dangerous. These are the areas where pipes are the most likely to freeze. When you let them drip, this keeps water flowing through them and prevents freezing.
-Wrap Them Up
If you have pipes that are exposed outside or pipes that are in crawlspaces, attics and other areas that are exposed to the winter cold, make sure that they’re properly insulated. Wrap them up in foam insulation to keep them warm or else you’ll definitely have some burst pipes on your hands. The ones that are exposed to the cold air are especially vulnerable.
-Hot Water Heater Maintenance
Before the cold weather sets in, do a little hot water heater maintenance. Look for sediment build-ups around the heater and remove them. Your hot water heater has to work extra hard during the winter months, and this added strain can cause it to malfunction if it’s not properly maintained. It’ll work more efficiently and also last much longer.
It’s not a bad idea to call the plumber for a little plumbing inspection before the winter months set in. They can inspect everything and make sure that you don’t have any trouble spots. This costs money, of course, but the cost of having your home’s plumbing inspected can save you seriously on repair costs if something goes wrong. It’s an investment in keeping your pipes healthy and happy.
Energy Saving Tips For This Winter
It’s a simple fact that home heating costs are on the rise. Whether the source of heating is natural gas or electric, prices for fuel have sky-rocketed and they’re showing no signs of coming down.
While keeping off every light in the house may help for a while, there are more logical steps that can be taken to fight back against heating costs that are too high in a home. Conservation efforts at home can go a long way toward keeping bills lower.
Whether it’s winter or summer, a thermostat should stay in the range of 68 to 70 degrees with money saving variations on either end depending on conditions. For heating, every degree above 70 increases costs by as much at 10 percent. Considering the costs of heating, that’s a whole lot of money.
Make sure filters in heating and cooling machinery are cleaned and changed on a monthly basis. Dirty filters have been known to hike electric costs by as much as 20 percent. That’s a lot of cash thrown out the window. They can also damage equipment, which will cost you even more in the long run.
Inspect systems and ductwork on a yearly basis. Sometimes ducts can spring leaks, which cause major drains on the wallet. These inspections can also tell you if your system operates as it should and as safely as it should.
Make sure fireplace dampers are closed when not in use. A chimney can suck a lot of air out of home and cause some serious drains on the heating or cooling system.
Ceiling fans can help circulate both warm and cool air. Remember though, they typically are best used when you’re in the room, too.
Make sure windows and doors are properly sealed. This means caulking, sealing and weather stripping.
Storm windows can also help keep leaks from draining the bill.
Close up crawl spaces in the winter.
In the winter, if you plan to be away on vacation, set your thermostat to the lowest setting, but don’t turn it off.
Keeping heating costs at an affordable rate may be difficult due to circumstances beyond our control, but homeowners can take steps to reduce their use of energy and at least keep their bills in check.
Welcome to The Sanders Pipeline
Welcome to the new Sanders Home Services Blog, “The Sanders Pipeline”. We are excited to be posting helpful and educational information about our family of services and products. Check back frequently to get information that will help you keep your home running smoothly and more efficiently. We will also be providing Energy Saving tips that will help you, the homeowner, save money while living in comfort!
