10 Affordable Ways To Winterize Your Home

Posted on Saturday, November 12th, 2011

10 Affordable Ways To Winterize Your Home is part two of a three part series for homeowners who would like to boost their winter efficiency and lower their energy bills. The cost of heating a house in the winter can put a damper on Christmas. So if you want to minimize your bills in order to maximize the amount of presents you can buy, here are a few affordable ways to boost the winter efficiency of your home.

Affordable Winterizing

1) Block leaks
Air leaks are seemingly harmless, but if you were able to see how much heat you were actually losing, you might think differently. Air leaks are the quickest way to loose the heat in your home. A simple crack in between your door and the door frame is actually more like a foot wide hole in your wall when you consider surface area. The point is, little cracks make for major problems.

There are a few ways you can find leaks, one of the most affordable is to use incense. By lighting incense, you can see how the air is moving within your home. If the smoke trail flattens out horizontally or even drops down, you know you have a leak somewhere. The best places to check are near outlets, around doors, by windows, and in front of a fire place. Those are some of the leakiest parts of a home.

Once you figure out what is leaking, you’ll know how to handle it. Weather stripping is available at all hardware stores, use it liberally.

2) Door sweeps
The underside of a door is a very overlooked area of heat loss. Since it is so close to the floor, its easy to ignore. Weather stripping isn’t really meant for the floor. Instead, you’ll need a door sweep. Door sweeps come in many shapes and sizes and ultimately the decision will come down to your own personal preferences.

3) Mind your ductwork
Ductwork can lose up to 60% of the heated air before it reaches the vents. Poor connections and lack of insulation are the primary culprits. If your ductwork hasn’t been taken care of with professional cleaning and inspection, you are losing heat to spaces like attics, basements, and crawlspaces.

If you want to do it yourself, don’t use duct tape to seal the connections. Use metal-backed tape so that it doesn’t degrade. If you want to insulate your ducts for an extra boost, make sure you wrap ducts with duct insulation.

Affordable ways #4 – #10 are continued in Part 2

 

 

 

 

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