Tips for Insulating Your Windows This Winter
Winter is
such a wonderful time of year. What’s not to love about snowball fights, the
holidays and warm winter treats like hot cocoa and Christmas cookies?
Unfortunately, one of the downsides of winter is the damage the cooler weather
can do to your electric bill.
Every
year, U.S. homeowners spend way too much on heating their houses because of
poor insulation. The main culprit for heat loss from your home during the
winter is poorly insulated windows. While windows can be great at letting in
sunlight and trapping heat during the day, they can’t do much to maintain that
warmth into the evening. Below are a few tips on how you can easily insulate
your windows this winter for a warmer home and a reduced electric bill.
Window Insulation Kits
Insulating
your windows on your own can be intimidating if you are new to home
improvement. However, there are tons of window insulation kits available that
make the process as easy, user friendly and, most importantly, as effective as
possible. Not to mention, these kits are super affordable and a worthwhile
investment for the retention of heat in your home. These kits come in multiple
sizes to fit windows large and small and offer some of the simplest
installation on the market. For example, this super-affordable and effective Shrink-It
Window Sealer Kit can be installed by just
attaching it to the window you would like to insulate and using your hair dryer
to shrink the film drum tight onto your windows for maximum insulation.
Weather-Stripping
The tried-and-true
method of insulating your home during the winter, weather-stripping is another
simple and super effective way to keep your home warm and your electric bill
down. For windows, you can use traditional weather stripping or weather-stripping
tape, like this Frost
King Black Rubber Tape, which is both easy to install and affordable. One advantage to
methods like weather-stripping and using weather-stripping tape is that they
can be used to insulate more than just your windows. A $3 roll of weather stripping
can insulate your windows and a few doors in your home, which means that the
insulation will quickly pay for itself.
Acrylic Glazing
For those
of us who live in especially frigid climates that can reach winter cold
temperatures almost year-round, it might be wise to invest in a more robust
insulation solution. While not as simple and temporary as an insulation kit or
weather stripping, installing a sheet of Acrylic
Glazing (plexiglass) in lieu of traditional glass
panes on your windows is a super-effective way to keep the cold out of your
home. Acrylic glazing has many of the same properties as glass, with some added
benefits: It lets in about the same amount of light, it can be as thin or
thinner than regular glass panes, and it is shatter resistant. However, what
makes acrylic glazing great for insulation are its properties at the molecular
level. Because acrylic glazing is produced differently than traditional glass,
it does not conduct heat as well as glass does. What this means for you as a
homeowner is, while traditional glass windows can conduct heat very well and
radiate a significant amount of your home’s heat away during the evening,
acrylic glazing will trap this heat because it is a poor conductor of heat
energy.
Sealing
windows for winter shouldn’t have to be a scary or complicated task. While each
of these methods for insulating your windows is super effective, we also
recommend using them in conjunction to maximize the insulation on your windows.
We hope that these tips have been helpful and will give you some peace of mind
this winter season. And for all other home hardware needs, feel free to visit Bonanza Hardware for great prices and even better customer service.
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