With COVID-19 sending a lot of the workforce home, your house may be feeling the stress on its inner workings like it never has before. With more people in the house for more time, your plumbing, heating, and even your electricity are going to be used much more than usual. This begs the question, what can we do to make sure this doesn’t end in disaster!?
Prevention is key. Since you’re home more now, you have the opportunity to keep an eye on things. Watch for toilets and sinks that are draining slower than usual. This can indicate clogs in the pipes. A quick call to your local plumber can have that fixed in no time.
Keep an eye on the temperature in your home. If everyone is working nearby, you might be able to turn down the heat in other areas of your home during the day, saving on your power bill, and also saving wear and tear on your heating equipment. If you’re fortunate enough for each person to have their own space, try to keep warm using slippers and sweaters and save your heating equipment some work.
If you’re working from home now, you may see an uptick in energy consumption. To help with this, turn off any unnecessary equipment at the end of your day. This can also help you to create a distinct time for work to end and relaxation to begin. If the work computer is turned off, you may not be tempted to log back in “just to check your email.”
Working from home is a new experience for much of the workforce. While it’s important to stay productive, it’s also important to make sure that you, and your home, remain safe, and healthy.
