5 Tips for maintaining a comfortable temperature for the elderly
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Is one of your elderly family members coming to live with you? Are you a hospice that offers assisted living to the elderly, and you're looking for ways to provide a conducive environment for them?
The major aspect that you need to take charge of is the temperature of your space. This article will guide you on maintaining a comfortable temperature for your loved ones. Follow through with this article for insight.
Practice the following:
1. Understand their needs
When it comes to the elderly, they all have varying needs. The variation often arises from body conditions, including illnesses.
This means that a given temperature might work for one and not work for another. Therefore, to find the best temperature for your elderly one, you need to understand their needs.
If they're suffering from certain illnesses, ask their doctor about temperatures that'll be comfortable for them without alleviating their existing conditions. On the other hand, if they're in perfect health, ask them how they feel about the temperatures in your home or where they're living. Are they always feeling cold or hot?
By gathering this information, you'll find a suitable temperature that you need to maintain to suit their needs.
2. Adopt temperature control technologies
Often, you might find it challenging to maintain a constant temperature in your home. This will, in turn, affect the comfort levels of your elderly one.
You can adopt ways to help you take control of the temperatures. One of them is a temperature sensor. There are Temperature sensors by Pyrosales and various other brands that you can make your selection.
With these sensors, all you have to do is pre-set a specific temperature to be maintained in your home. If there's a temperature deviation from that you've set, it'll detect it and notify you. This allows you to adjust your AC systems accordingly.
Another tool you can adopt is a programmable thermostat. It more or less works like the sensor; only this time it can control your AC unit.
Once you've set your desired temperature, should there be a change, it will turn on or switch off the AC accordingly.
Also, if your elderly one isn't home at a given time, you can switch it off to save on energy consumption. Once they're almost to get back, you can start it and set the desired temperature, such that by the time the elderly one gets home, the space is already heated up accordingly.
With these innovations, you'll always maintain the temperatures of your space for the comfort of your elderly one.
3. Insulate your home
Insulation is an effective way of providing a conducive environment for your elderly one, especially if they're to stay in the environment for quite some time, such as home care.
You can opt to insulate your walls, basement, or attic, including heating your floor. The most efficient way of going about this is to insulate the areas the elderly family members spends most of the time. These spaces could be their bedrooms or the living room.
There are various materials to pick from for insulation, from fibreglass to earth wool to cellulose. All these have varying performance characteristics.
Be sure to use an insulating material that doesn't have allergen components that are likely to affect the health of your elderly one, whether or not they have existing conditions.
4. Inspect For Air Leakages
You might have installed an AC or insulated your home, but you're still unable to maintain the temperatures of your space. This could be a result of air leaks in your home.
With air leaks, cold air from the outside will find its way into your home even after heating up, and warm air will leave as well.
You need to seal any openings for an efficient working system, especially around your doors and windows. One effective way of eliminating these air leaks is by weather stripping.
Once you've sealed the air leaks, you'll maintain your home's temperatures.
5. Perform routine maintenance
You're probably using an HVAC unit to keep the temperature in your house consistent. HVAC devices will inevitably fail from time to time, reducing efficiency. Consider the following scenario: it's winter, your air conditioner breaks down in the middle of the night, and you have an elderly relative in your house. For both of you, this might be a nightmare.
In most cases, these breakdowns are preventable if noticed earlier on. This is why you need to schedule routine inspections for your HVAC and thermostat.
A professional will assess your systems in these inspections and ensure everything is working efficiently. If there's a problem, they'll repair it before things become worse. They'll also replace the air filters in your air conditioner, ensuring that you're breathing clean air.
You'll be able to keep the temperature of your house consistent for your loved one if your HVAC unit is in good working condition.
Conclusion
The elderly require extra attention to maintain their health. Because they are prone to sickness, they must be kept in regulated environments, particularly in terms of temperature.
This article has demonstrated how simple it is to do so. Implement them, and you can rest confident that your senior loved one will always be in a safe and healthy setting.
