fall coming! need ideas for insulating windows

Is this a bastement apartment? Are the windows that important to you in the wintertime? How many wondows are we talking about? Am I the only Home Improvements professional here? Hmmm...

Message me, I can noodle this through for you...

 

i suppose you could create a small frame that holds some bubble wrap that fits the window perfectly. i'm thinking a wooden frame with some sort of thick material covering it to help seal and secure the frame into the window seal. if you decide on curtains make sure they fit against the windows closely and no gap is at the bottom of them or you'll start a convection current between window and curtain that will cool the place.

you need some material on the floor, like some old carpet or something. you'll need to try and make sure you get some air into the rooms of a day.

carpet and curtains are a must if you want to keep the heat in - oh yeah think about getting or making a draught excluder for the bottom of doors.

 

Check all the insulation foam around the windows and under the door. Replace it if necessary. Here's the Lowe's site:

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=howTo&p=Improve/Weatherstripping.html

There's also shrink plastic that you can place over the inside of the window frame. It's similar to Saran wrap and keeps out drafts during winter and is removed in the spring.

If the modification is permanent, like replacing the foam seals, you can usually get a tax break for it. If it's temporary, like the Saran wrap type seal, then you can't. (or at least that's how the rules were years ago)

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at the last place i lived in i stuck bubble wrap on the windows to keep the heat in. bubble wrap is freely available and can be salvaged from stuff. be aware of the whole fire danger of it - just incase anyone decides to try it.

on another note. (this is a major digression) about 8 years ago i turned up to a place looking for prospective flatmates . in the room i was sat in talking to the tenant i noticed that despite the heaviest drapes and carpet i had ever seen the whole place was like a refridgerator. after a couple of minutes my suspicions grew and i asked the tenant outright if the place was haunted and she admitted there had been problems with the cutlery flying around etc. after another couple of minutes i was looking and moving around a small cojoined shed next to the kitchen where they figured all the trouble was, in the pitch dark. i've often found that talking about the problem at its epicentre cures it. anyway there was no way i was moving into the place - too much trouble, believe me i know! (no i'm not psychic or have any "abilities").

at the moment i'm mulling over some ideas about how to heat some rooms using some salvaged components and without money - basically because i'm a tight arse.

 

Buibble wrap is a good idea, the sothern wall of the house should stay the warmest. Anything that will trap solar radiation at the southern window will increase your heat (i.e. plastic, plexiglass, etc) You can block the north facing window and fill the window well with rolled newspapers, army blankets, whatever as insulatory material.

We heat with oil but I took a nice Vermont Castings wood stove in trade for some work and have a source for unlimited free firewood. Southern Maryland Oil can kiss my ass this winter.

 

the bubble wrap won't look pretty but it will help keep heat in. as i said be aware of candles near the stuff and heat sources - thats my disclaimer! good luck!

 

If you're going the bubble wrap way, check out that new high tech bubble wrap with the foil backing. It is said to have an incredibly high R factor for it's thickness.

If you go lathe and plastic you can get some pretty thick, 6-8 mil, visquene that is really quite clear.

 

Drumminmama, another step with the visqueen is to add sealant between the visqueen and the lathe, and the visqueen and the window sill. Minor air leaks can make all the difference. A tube of a product called Tremco (you will need a caulking gun) is what you could use. It is labled as acoustic sealant but is used to seal visquene vapor barriers in houses up here. It has been dubbed "black death" by contractors up here because if you make a black gooey mess it doesn't clean up.

 

HC, I used to live in an old house with windows that were great heat/cold exchangers. We cut plexiglass to each window's shape and then glued one side of velcro to the plexiglass and glued/stapled the other side to the sill. It cut down the heat loss dramatically as well as insultated against the drafts.

 

plexiglass??/ that shits more exspensive than glass!!!!

man luvndrum had cash to blow when he did that...

 

I wasn't the one paying for it, so I don't know and I have no idea about the cost of plexi. So maybe it isn't what HC has in mind. It does work pretty well, though.

 

Oh QUESTION.........I bought bubble wrap for my windows... how the heck do you put it on? What kind of glue? tape? I bought the roll with the big bubbles..this has to go on triangular windows that are close to the ceiling...single panes... AHHHHHHHHHHHH I need help.

 

I would suggest something like a sealant, especially one with adhesive qualities.
Take a look at this. It might do what you want. It or whatever you get needs to bond to both the wrap and whatever the surface is on the window side.