With winter settling in across the United States, many parents will be thinking of how to best keep their children’s bedroom a comfortable temperature throughout the night. Children, and especially babies, are sensitive to temperature changes. Luckily, there are many ways to keep your children comfortable at night that don’t involve making the rest of the household too warm to sleep.
Use Electric Blankets
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Electric blankets are blankets that plug into an electric outlet and can adjust to create just the right temperature for your child. Do not use electric blankets with babies or infants, but they are a great option for older children.
Many electric blankets come with multiple settings, from a “preheat setting” (great for warming up the bed before your child jumps in) to a number of temperature settings that can satisfy even the pickiest sleeper. Higher quality electric blankets also come with a timer that will shut off the blanket at a time of your choosing.
When picking an electric blanket for your child, safety should come before any other feature. You may want to consider a low voltage electric blanket, which has smaller wires and uses less electricity. It will also let off less heat, but sometimes a little heat is all that is needed for a comfortable night.
Seal Cracks in Door and Windows
One of the best ways to keep a bedroom warm and cozy is to make sure the heated air has few places to escape. Windows, doors that lead outside, and even electric outlets on an outside wall are all culprits for leaking heat out of a room. These drafts lower the temperature of the room and can make it too chilly for your child.
A professional HVAC technician can do a door and window analysis and can seal any cracks that are letting heated air escape into the cooler air outside. In addition to stemming leaks, if you have an older house you may benefit from adding insulation into the walls around your child’s room.
Install a Ceiling Fan
Ceiling fans not only provide cooling in the summer, but they can also offer air circulation in the winter that helps to keep rooms warmer. Heated air rises above cool air, which results in the warmest part of a room being close to the ceiling. In the winter, set the ceiling fan’s motor to rotate in a clockwise direction. Doing this creates a small updraft, which in turn forces the warmer air at the ceiling down to the floor.
While it seems counterintuitive to run a ceiling fan during the winter, it can result in a warmer room for your child. Ceiling fans with a fan set to run clockwise are great additions to any rooms in the winter, especially those with vaulted, taller ceilings.
Securing your children’s warm comfort at night doesn’t necessarily require you to blast the heat throughout the entire house. By using electric blankets where appropriate, sealing cracks in doors and windows, and using a ceiling fan to push warm air down to the floor, you’ll be creating a comfortable temperature for your children.
