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Cold Weather is Here
We were lucky to dodge most of the snow the area got late last week, but we haven't escaped the cold temperatures. And that means high heating bills.
The house we live in is old with very old windows, and I can just feel the money pouring out the windows as we heat the house. We've been thinking about getting some of those plastic window covering things for some of the really drafty windows we have.
My question to you, web friends, is this: do those things work or are they mostly a waste of money? We've identified about 6 windows and are thinking about covering those, but if it's a waste, we won't bother. Any advice?
Posted by Mike at November 20, 2005 12:10 PM | Add to del.icio.usi had the same problem last year with my windows (from about 1956). i covered them and it helped a little bit. you could see the coverings bow out with the cold air coming in, but it did stop more than had i not put any in. my gas prices last year were around 275 a month.
this year i put in new windows from thermo-twin (good windows, horrible service/installation... long story). i've noticed a difference already. i only turned on the heat last week once, for about an hour to get it up to 65,and turned it off and i was good the rest of the night. it seemed to hold in the warm air just fine.
if your windows are as bad as mine, i'd seriously consider new ones. expensive i know, but it'll help when you go to sell the house, or if you plan on being there a few more years.
but for the $5 they are, the plastic coverings help a little bit for the meantime. i'd rather spend $30 on those rather than the $100 in heating it'll save for the winter.
Posted by: ron at November 20, 2005 2:06 PMon another note, when you go to preview a comment, i saw this error at the bottom under previous comments:
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Ron did all of our windows downstairs for the last two winters. They helped significantly! He got the kind that you install on the outside of the windows. They were definitely worth the few dollars you pay for them. Home Depot had them for like $10 or $11 a pack. If I remember correctly, one pack did our two big windows, or it will do like five standard windows.
Posted by: ree at November 20, 2005 6:22 PMyea... if you are looking at staying there long term look into investing in "super windows" you can check them out on the energy star website. They are triple layered and in the summer they reflect the heat from the sun and in winter they let the heat in (has to do with the angle of the sun and where it sits during different seasons) If you increase the insulation in your attic, etc it will help as well. We just learned about all these different ways to save energy for winter in my environment class.
Posted by: Justin at November 20, 2005 6:39 PMWell, the plastic things can't hurt. And you don't have a little kitty there to shred them to bits like we did on Winton (sidebar: Can you imagine the heating bills at Winton this winter? No thanks.). If you guys are still renting (and I don't remember hearing otherwise, although I'm sure I could have missed that), then new windows probably aren't an option, unless you can convince the LL to do it (good luck). So do the plastic thingies. Maybe at least see if he can put in a new programmable thermostat. We have one of those, and it's great. We have it set warmer while we're home, then we drop it to 60 while we're gone during the day and sleeping at night. Probably has saved us a nice amount. Good luck. It's gonna be ugly for everyone.
Posted by: alan at November 21, 2005 1:29 AMif done right, I'd say they help a LOT. (my family did it every winter for a long time) they're annoying looking......but huge gas bills are much more annoying.
hurray I'm in an apartment with heat included!
Posted by: jessiekitty at November 21, 2005 5:09 AM
