The HeatTrak Homeowner's Blog & Resources

As a kid, winter meant snow fights, days off from school, and Christmas presents under the tree. As a senior citizen, well, winter is a whole other ball game! Unfortunately, because of the drop in temperature, icy conditions, and impaired vision or mobility issues, winter ushers in a whole slew of unique health hazards for the older crowd, and many fall victim to these dangers every year.

Winter readiness can mean many things, but the desire to "go green" and save on your electric bill must be balanced with the desire to stay warm and comfortable. To put it "colorfully," you want to find a way to go green without turning blue.

Below we have 18 winter readiness tips: most of them are simple and fast to implement, and can help you accumulate significant energy savings:

Rock salt melts ice, but it also does a lot of damage. Use this handy infographic to find deicing alternatives to rock salt that are gentler on your walkway.

Images provided by: Wade Works Creative

Let’s take a peek into the life and work of Chip Wade, a home designer and craftsman who’s built a career doing what he loves -- serving as a creative vehicle to design homes of his clients’ dreams. Thank you, Chip, for sharing your story with us!

As winter approaches, at least in the more northerly portions of the U.S., many homeowners find themselves longing for a way to make snow and ice removal fast and easy, and heated driveway systems immediately come to mind.

Heated driveways are easiest to install when pouring a new concrete or asphalt driveway and often require you to replace your existing driveway. However, in some instances, the electric coil type can be retrofitted in, especially if you only intend to heat a limited portion of the pavement.

Rock salt is easily the cheapest option when it comes to melting snow and ice on U.S. roadways as well as on pavements at U.S. homes. Over a third of the salt sold in the United States every year is rock salt, which is basically the as-is salt mined from natural salt deposits left underground by "ancient oceans."

Rock salt's destructive tendencies on driveway pavements, especially on concrete but on asphalt as well, are well known. It is not surprising, then, that many homeowners are now seeking alternatives to rock salt when it comes to deicing their driveways and outdoor foot-traffic pavements.

Below, we offer 6 chemical deicers that can take the place of rock salt and 4 non-chemical deicing solutions to consider. These options are not all mutually exclusive, so feel free to mix and match and find the approach that works best for you.

When outdoor temperatures plummet and snow and ice cover the ground, conditions are dangerous for everyone, but it is seniors who suffer the most each winter from hypothermia, frostbite, slip-and-fall incidents, and other accidents.

By better understanding wintertime dangers, seniors can better prepare and minimize the risks. Here are 8 winter safety tips for seniors that will help them safely navigate wintry conditions:

Rock salt (sodium chloride), as well as many other deicers, pose major hazards to your pets when applied in significant quantities to your driveway and other outdoor pavements. Being aware of these dangers and how to eliminate, or at least minimize, the risks to your cat or dog from rock salt can save your pet's health or even his/her life.