Well - just look outside and you will be happily / unhappily (depending on your views on snow and cold weather!) confronted with the evidence that we are certainly in the midst of a very cold and snowy winter this year.

Every year many people have problems in their homes from freezing pipes and what not.
We have found a very useful list of things we all should do this winter to ensure that we are ready for the very cold winter that is all around us:

KNOW YOUR HOUSE: Know what areas of your home, such as basements, crawl spaces, unheated rooms and outside walls, are most vulnerable to freezing.

PIPES: Search for pipes that are not insulated, or that pass through unheated spaces such as crawlspaces, basements or garages. Wrap them with pipe insulation available at hardware stores.

HEAT TAPE: If you have heat tape installed on exposed pipes, you need to check it to make sure it is still operational. Inspect the tape for cracks or fraying. Make sure it is installed according to the manufacturer's recommendations.

SHUT-OFF VALVE: Make sure everyone in your household knows where your main water shut-off valve is. Check shut-off valve annually to make sure it is working properly. If a pipe freezes or bursts, shut the water off immediately.

OUTDOOR FAUCETS: Make sure the water to your outdoor faucets is shut off inside your house (via a turnoff valve), and that lines are drained.

WATER HEATING: If your home is heated by a hot-water radiator, bleed the valves by opening them slightly. Close them when water appears.

WATER TEMPERATURE: Keep water heater temperature around 120 degrees and install inexpensive low-flow shower heads to reduce hot water use. Lowering the temperature to 120 degrees would reduce water heating costs by 6 to 10 percent.

TURN OFF WHILE AWAY: If no one will be home for an extended period of time during extreme winter weather, you should consider turning your main valve off altogether and hiring a plumber to drain your system. That way, if your furnace quits working, there will be no water in your pipes to freeze.

When temperatures fall below zero:

TRICKLE: Allow a small trickle of water to run overnight to keep pipes from freezing. The cost of the extra water is low compared to the cost to repair a broken pipe.

OPEN DOORS: Open cabinet doors to expose pipes to warmer room temperatures to help keep them from freezing.

If your pipes freeze:

SHUT OFF: Shut off the water immediately. Don't attempt to thaw frozen pipes unless the water is shut off. Freezing can often cause unseen cracks in pipes or joints that will leak when thawed.

CHECK FOR LEAKS: Once the pipes have thawed, turn the water back on slowly and check for cracks and leaks.

(These tips come from Ohio American Water but with the very cold weather we are getting, it will definitely apply to us as well)

This cold weather means that having a nice hot shower is even more enjoyable than usual (isn't the journey from the nice warm bed, over the cold floor boards or tiles, to the shower just the most horrid journey of the day?!), to make the experience even healthier for us and more enjoyable by keeping our skin and hair more supple and soft, please don't forget to buy a shower filter from our a shower filter online store at http://www.pureshowers.co.uk.

Have a great new year and keep looking after yourselves!

The pureshowers team