Tips for Weatherproofing Your Manufactured Home for Winter

Tips for Weatherproofing Your Manufactured Home for Winter

Fall is in full swing across the United States, with the nation’s leaves and temperatures both falling as the days grow shorter. On deck: Winter.

While everyone wants to stay warm this winter, owners of manufactured homes face a specific set of challenges in keeping both their unit and their personal economic status comfortable. Here are some steps you can take to make your manufactured home more energy efficient before the winter winds blow.

Control the Temperature: Those chilling shivers down the spine might prompt you to rush to the thermostat and turn it up. Resist the temptation. Government guidelines call for leaving the thermostat at 68 degrees to maximize your heating unit’s efficiency and to keep your monthly energy bill manageable. If you’re out of town or have simply gone to bed, set the thermostat to 60 degrees.

Insulation Consultation: Depending on your unit’s age and construction, there’s a chance its insulation is woefully inadequate to today’s conditions. Your first step is to contact a professional installer who can tell you what needs to be done to winterproof your unit’s underbelly, walls and roof. Be aware that there are many different types of insulation available, each with their own performance characteristics, so compare your options before deciding.

Winter Seals: Sealing off your manufactured home to the elements means there won’t be any nagging winds blowing through the unit to lower the temperature, forcing the heat to kick on. Check the seals on all your doors and windows. If you discover a hole or tear in your door or window framing, repair it. Next, look at your air vents to make sure they aren’t blocked. If they are, your heater will be working extra hard, resulting in a higher energy bill.

Caulk Talk: If you can’t replace your current doors and windows with more energy-efficient ones, caulking and weather-stripping can help considerably. Sealing any openings around plumbing fixtures and ducts also can help plug openings that allow heat to escape.

Here Comes the Sun: Even though winter months mean less sunlight overall, use the sun to your advantage as free heat. This is often referred to as “daylighting,” which means using natural sunlight to brighten and warm up the interior of your manufactured home. Open the curtains and shades on windows that face south to bring in free heat and close them after sundown to keep the heat inside. The more natural light you have, the less you have to rely on energy to power lamps and other fixtures.

Hearth to Hearth: Fireplaces are now commonplace in manufactured homes, and we all know nothing says winter like curling up in front of a warm fire on a chilly night. As a bonus, the practice also enables you to turn down the thermostat when you let that natural heat flow. First make sure your chimney is clean and free of any built-up ash or soot, and afterwards close the flue to keep cold air out.


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At Harmony Communities, we feel strongly that each resident has a sense of home. That they come home from work and feel pride in their environment and in their place in the greater community. That families are comfortable raising children in our neighborhoods, and that couples and singles know that they belong to something bigger than their four walls. In other words, we seek to create harmony within each community, making our communities not just passable, but peaceful, safe, functional, and beautiful.