Winterizing - Sealing Up Old Windows
Our house is old, and many of our windows are single pane and very drafty. In the wintertime, this equates to a 100-300% increase in our electric bill. On a recommendation by a neighbor, we decided to install some plastic shrinkwrap insulation (also mentioned by Dawn in her recent Carnival post). Although we bought it at Home Depot for ~$14, I couldn’t find it on their site, but here is the exact product.
Basically you tack up some double-sided tape on your window borders inside, put on this saran-wrap type of plastic, and then use a hair dryer to “shrink” the plastic and remove all the wrinkles. The results: you can still see out your windows, but it reduces drafts and you have an insulative air pocket. Here are some pics of my handiwork:
I forgot to take ‘Before’ pics, but the first one is after I put up the plastic and took out the wrinkles, and the second one is after I removed the excess plastic. I was a bit skeptical of the product initially, but it turned out pretty good. The wrinkles all came out, and the tape seems to be pretty airtight, at least for now. I can even tell where cold air came in by seeing where it fogs up the plastic. You can tell there is plastic sheeting there if you look closely or hit the glare just right, but it’s pretty unnoticeable, especially if you use mini-blinds.
I’m going to do the rest of the bedroom windows, let’s see if it was worth the 14 bucks.
Find more in Frugal Living | 10/19/05, 10:33pm | Trackback
October 20th, 2005 at 7:27 am
How many windows does one kit fit? My roommates and I bought some simply masking tape and clear plastic last year to ‘winterize.’ It looks like poop, but we think it helps — and pretty cheap. This obviously looks better, but is it $14 per window???
October 20th, 2005 at 9:16 am
The kit I got, as shown in the link, contained two sheets that were each 62″ x 210″. So that’s about 5 ft x 17 ft, enough for 4 decent sizes windows for my house.
After last night, it seems like the room heated up faster and kept its temperature better - but it may just be in our heads.
October 20th, 2005 at 12:06 pm
Well, I screwed that up good. I published all my files over to my new domain at http://www.everybodylovesyourmoney.com and have somehow lost my elym.blogspot.com domain. I’m trying to get it back up so that I can redirect to my new site, but I might not be able to. Can you update your link on your site?
Thanks a lot!!
Hazzard
October 20th, 2005 at 1:02 pm
I’m about to do this same exact thing…
May 14th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Does it work at -20C?
November 10th, 2008 at 11:14 am
You should find an affiliate program with that product, because I’m about to buy at that link you have there. I specifically found you looking for Home Depot’s listing and you’re right - they’re missing out sales cuz that product can’t be found there.
Thanks for that link! My apartment windows have old leaky glass so this is going to help. I bet you’ve seen a benefit already (depending on where you live).
PS I talked to a live rep at the link in the story - in case anyone else is wondering, yes, you can cut them in half or trim them to size and they still work fine. Sounds obvious but I checked