Cutting Down on Energy Bills
Cutting down on energy bills involve much more than the obvious: turning down the thermostat in winter, turning it up in summer. Instead, it is important to look around your home for simple and least expensive methods to increasingly more expensive and more involved methods to save money on your energy bills. The simple ones can cost $40 and more, depending upon the size of your place.
For starters, whether you are struggling right now to keep warm or cool indoors, consider that the same methods are employed around a typical household. For one, you may want to take match to the windows. No, do not light them on fire. Instead, this will allow you to see, particularly during cold weather, if there is a draft. This is because the flame from a match or even a candle will move if there is air passing by it.
Combat Air Leakage
This indicates what is know as air leakage. It could be that from years of wear and tear, the windows have started seeing gaps. These gaps can happen for any number of reasons. Though, as long as it is not air leaking through a joint that makes up the frame or jamb on the window, it is fairly easy to fix.
For one, consider buying weather stripping to stick in place between the bottom of the window and where it strikes down and sits on the sill. This will help to provide a more adequate, if not air tight, seal. In addition, it may be again, a matter of time, that has created a gap outside on the window. This could also be a good time to purchase heat blocking windows for the home as well.
Line of Defense
This is more of a job for caulking. Look at the color and style of the caulking when you are at the store. It could be that there is one specifically for brick, vinyl or all metals and all surfaces. It just needs to definitely be made to sit outside to hold up against the elements. Caulking less than once a year is ideal.
Get into those holes that may exist between the home and the brick. Go back inside and test out that candle or match again. It is likely that simple steps such as these have made a great impact in the ability of your window to stop air leaks. This will save a lot of energy.
Backing up Efforts
In addition, if newer varieties of windows are not necessarily in your present budget, consider using curtains or other window treatments to help your cause. As the colder months approach, look into finding curtains with a vinyl or other backing that will prevent the passage of air readily into your room from your windows.
Windows, particularly older varieties, tend to allow in a great deal of heat exchange. This can mean that cold air is allowed in and hot air escapes outside. The purpose of curtains can be to help block this transfer of heat.
Advantages of New Windows
New windows allow for many of these tactics to become obsolete. Newer windows use double panes to insulate. In addition, there are gases pumped in between the panes to improve insulation. Beyond that, they have seals that are all in tact, fins that cover against air leakage, where older models lack any defense against air exchange. There are low-emissivity metallic coatings that encourage the proper energy exchange, whether it is to bounce cold back out in cold months, or heat back out during hot months. Cutting down on energy bills can be simple.
