Are You Ready for the Most Expensive and Coldest Winter of Recent Years?

As the seasons change, many of us do nothing but bring out our winter coats and heaters. However, the winter, which is slowly starting to show itself, is in many respects. it will be much harder. In other words, we have to be more prepared for winter this year compared to previous years.

Although difficulty is a relative concept, getting ready for winter if you have a moderate income. a little harder than in previous years it could be. The maintenance that needs to be done during the seasonal transitions and the new needs can be quite expensive. So what should we do to prepare ourselves for winter? Why will the next season be more difficult? Let’s take a look at the reasons.

Let’s remember what happened to us as winter approaches…

Let’s start with a virus that causes great losses and destruction to all of us. Yes, we are talking about Covid-19. Although the virus first appeared in 2019, we still continue to experience the effects of the pandemic process today. The biggest reason for this is the spread of the virus in many parts of the world. production has come to a standstill to be. As the production decreased, we faced great difficulties in the return of the pandemic.

While we could not get over the virus, we were burdened with trouble after trouble and experienced many events that upset the import-export balance. for example War between Russia and Ukraine as. This tension between the countries affected not only Turkey but also the whole world.

Russia’s possession of a large part of the world’s natural gas reserves also created problems.

Russia has the world’s largest oil reserves and the second largest coal reserves. Russia has greatly reduced its natural gas and oil exports after the sanctions imposed on it. Of course, countries that are already going through difficult times after this situation, this time too. to the problem of warming fell.

On the one hand, we experienced much hotter periods in the summer months. Sea ice has fallen to record levels in Antarctica. As a result, the balance of climates continued to be affected. With all these reasons in the coming days; we will buy natural gas more expensive, we will have economic difficulties and a colder winter we will pass.

Wars, political tensions, forest fires, crisis, we were dragged into a great chaos and it had some consequences.

What do you do if you are struggling financially? You cut back on your spending. For example; to get a coat right now hundreds of pounds You may be spending this winter with your old coat, as you have to pay. However, this is not just something you experience.

The same is true for our country’s economy. We buy the products we import from abroad more expensive, and this includes everything from potatoes to sugar and even natural gas. The products that our country imports more expensive, to make it more expensive and as a result, these increases are reflected in our invoices.

So, is it more logical to use natural gas for heating or to take shelter in electric heaters?

Let’s say you choose to heat with natural gas. You can heat your entire house and meet your hot water needs from natural gas. However, heating your whole house with natural gas will be expensive and to harm the environment will cause.

When you choose to heat with electricity, there are multiple tools that you can do this. You can install air conditioners and use electric heaters. Air conditioning is pretty good in many ways. It may seem logical. For example, it can meet your need for cold in summer and warm in winter.

The downside is that it is very difficult to heat more than one room with the air conditioner. Electric heaters, on the other hand, are compared to air conditioners in terms of cost. almost the same amount consumes electricity.

Heating is now much more expensive.

In today’s economy, unfortunately, it is very difficult to warm up either way. Because natural gas prices compared to last year 85% increase in electricity and 174% increase in natural gas came. According to Central Bank data, we have an annual inflation rate of 83.45%. When we go back a little further, this rate was 9.24% in 2005. we see that.

As you know, TL experienced a great loss of value due to some reasons. 1 dollar 1.41 TL in 2002 While the rate of inflation was 9.24% in 2005, 1 dollar was 1.35 TL. In other words, our purchasing power has been greatly affected and continues to be affected, both internally and externally.

It’s best this winter, let’s stretch our feet according to our quilt… So how do we prepare for the cold?

Although most of us don’t care, the insulation of windows and doors is very important.

The first thing you need to do before the snow cold comes down is to insulate your windows and doors. If you do not want to pay large amounts for this, you can install the frame parts of your windows and doors. insulation tapes You can paste it.

Take a shower with lukewarm water. Yes, warm. Not hot.

Taking a shower with hot water will cause you to feel colder after getting out of the shower, as well as cause damage to your skin. When you take a shower with very hot water and enter a cold environment your skin may become dry and eczema, can trigger your diseases such as psoriasis.

If you use a stove or fireplace for heating, you need to clean your chimneys and stove pipes.

The stove, in particular, can be a pretty scary warming tool. Unfortunately, most of the news of poisoning from the stove we see in the winter months not cleaning the pipes due to occur. Residues remaining in pipes and chimneys that are not properly cleaned begin to multiply and create a blockage by adding new ones after a while.

After the carbon monoxide gas, which could not find a place to escape, began to spread into the room, gas poisoning it occurs. The same is true for fireplaces and similarly working heating appliances. For this reason, you should make sure that your chimneys and pipes are clean.

If you have a hot water heater, you may want to insulate its pipes.

Hot water heaters can be a life saver, especially in homes without natural gas. However, during the winter months, the temperature of the hot water they provide may decrease. To prevent this, it is necessary to install the pipe and valve parts of your water heater. with materials such as foil and fiber You can insulate. Thus, the water coming from your water heater to your faucet will better maintain its temperature.

Don’t forget to take care of your car.

If you have a car, you should appreciate it. Owning a car is not easy anymore. There are several things you can do to protect your car. The first thing you should do is of course, as a classic suggestion; winter tire and snow chain to have. However, driving in a snowy and icy place can be quite challenging.

In order to get out of the ice in a difficult situation, some sand you can put Again, because it will reduce freezing rock salt It would also be helpful to have it. These seemingly small materials will increase the friction force and will cause your tire to slip less on ice. So these little things can protect you from bigger losses.

Unfortunately, as we have explained at length above, this winter will be quite difficult. For this reason, the suggestions we can offer you will manage you to a certain extent. In the suggestions we presented, we aimed to protect the heat of your home, to balance the temperature of your body and to prevent material damage to your car. However, everything becomes much more expensive as the seasons change. Therefore be as frugal as possibleWe will try not to catch a cold and get sick.

Sources: Central Bank, BBC, Bob Vila, EuroNews, EverGreen