keeping the winter chill at bay
It's chilly in our apartment and both Cornelius and I are really stingy about turning on the heat. We keep the heat in our apartment off most of the time, but will end up cranking it in our office since that's where we are most of the day. Most of the heat loss seems to go out of the windows and our windows do seem to let in a lot of chilly air (even with our double-paned windows).
I've been considering getting some heavy lined drapes for our livingroom since always the coldest room in the house. But then I spotted a link on Not Martha about using bubble wrap to help insulate windows during the winter. I liked that it was an easy, inexpensive fix that still let light through.
We ended up installing the bubble wrap (which we purchased at an office supply store) on most windows, but we left one window pane exposed in every room so it would be easy to open the windows or clearly see out of. The difference in temperature is quite noticeable. We can be in the living room watching movies and we don't need to turn on the heat unless it gets really cold. And in our small office where we keep the door closed, we so far have not needed to turn on the heat. It's been pretty amazing for such a small fix!**UPDATE**
Now that some colder weather has set upon us, we do have the heat on, however, the window covering really does keep the heat in without letting the cold enter. Over all, I'm super impressed, and yes, the pattern is pretty frickin cool.
Labels: diy, heat, save money, winter
posted by kickpleat at 2:40 PM
6 Comments:
Very cool! I like the funky texture it gives the windows - much more fun than the usual plastic window coating I've used in the past. I will definitely keep this tip in mind, glad to hear it works pretty well.
It should work much better than the traditional, ugly plastic isulation, since it is double thick PLUS has air insulation inbetween. What i like best is that it is actually quite attractive. Thanks for including the pics :)
What an awesome tip! At first I was admiring the unusual pattern on your windows. I was doubly impressed when I realized that it was there for purely practical reasons.
Innovative and smart!! Froze my ass off last winter even though I used the hardware store kits for insulating windows...the bubble wrap would have been so much better! Thankfully, this winter the house will be warmer due to the $10 grand worth of insulating renos we did to the house!
neato. i have tons of rolls of the small bubble wrap, since some etsy seller just threw those in a box instead of wrapping an item. weird. but anyways, i decided that i might as well use it on the bottom half of my bedroom windows, since the heater sits just below the window. (why? seems dumb.) so anyways my thoughts were that the heat would at least bounce off the wrap instead of just escaping outside. seems to work! yay! thank you!
I like how the big bubble wrap looks- i've done this in the past with the smaller bubble wrap, but this looks so pretty! I think I might have to go out and buy some.
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