Easy Ways to Winterize Your Home

Here is a list of simple ways to winterize your home and make it more comfortable and lower the heating bill.

Now that winter is almost here and the heating bills will start increasing dramatically, there are easy ways to winterize your home and keep the cold out and the heat in.

Here are those simple little things you can do to lower your heating bill and raise the comfort level that are fairly easy.

What is the R-value

I will mention this since it has to do with insulating.

Insulation is typically rated by the R-value it is a measure of a material's resistance to heat flow. The higher the R-value, the better the insulation and the more effective it is.

Winterize Windows and doors

During the winter, do you sit in front of your windows and feel that bitter cold air drifting in or even blowing in. Just the glass getting cold cools off the house.

Insulating plastic can help a great deal, if you have single pane windows this plastic can really make a big difference.

Even if you have double pane windows, putting insulating plastic over them can the house much warmer and more comfortable.

I have tried several different brands and I have found that the 3M brand worked the best, the thickest plastic and the double sided tape holds the best, which is important when the it gets wet from steam in the house. Look for 3M indoor window insulation kit. They come in different sizes and also for sliding glass doors. You just put this plastic on the inside of the window onto the frame, leaving at least an inch of space between the window and the plastic.

This insulation will increase the R-value by 90% over a single pane window.

I have actually seen this plastic blow inwards into the room before, showing just how much cold air really was coming into the house and the plastic was stopping. This insulating plastic is a great way to winterize your home.

Tip: Your windows probably have blinds or drapes you’ll want to open during the winter, make sure you tape the plastic on so you can still get to the opener of the drapes or blinds.

Winterize by Caulking

Putting caulk around the windows can help keep the cold air out as well. On the outside around the window frame you can probably see areas where the cold air is coming in. Put caulking all around the window. You can use removable caulking to see if this works and if not you can remove it. A good removable caulking for indoor and outdoor is DAP Seal N Peel removable caulk. You can also look for what’s called “rope caulk”.

On the inside, look under the window ledge, there might be a large gap where the ledge meets the wall; you can use this caulking there as well to winterize these gaps.

Winterize with Weather stripping

Around the doors, if you can feel cold air coming in, you can put foam weather stripping along the doorframe.

If you have a swamp cooler in a window, you can winterize this by putting foam weather stripping all around it.

There is the self-adhesive type foam weather stripping and there are also thicker pieces of foam for sale that you can push into larger gaps where you might not be able to use the adhesive type of foam.

Attic insulation

Making sure your attic has proper insulation can really help winterize your home and keep the heating bills down.

Your attic insulation should be 10 to 14” thick making it an R-38 rating.

There are two types of attack insulation, the blow in type and the roll type. If you should decide to do this yourself, you should use the following since you don’t want the insulation all over you.

Long pants and long sleeve shirt.
A dust mask.
Eye protection.

If you don’t feel comfortable doing this yourself, it would be worth it to have someone check your attic insulation and possibly do it for you.

More Easy Ways to Winterize Your Home

You can winterize the electrical outlets that are on outside walls, do you feel cold air coming through them, if so, you can buy electrical outlet seal packs or insulated cover plate for the electrical outlets and any switches that are on the outside walls. They have foam seals on them and stop air leakage.
Buy a water heater insulated blanket for the hot water tank. Any hardware store will sell them.
One of the easiest ways to winterize your home is to change the filter in the furnace whenever it needs it, maybe twice or more per winter.
Put a cover on the swamp cooler.
If you have a swamp cooler on the roof, the outflow vent in the house leaks a great deal of the heat. Cover that, maybe with some left over of the window insulation plastic. Or get a thick piece of Styrofoam cut and fit it in there.
Outside where the hose faucet is, is there a large gap around it or other large gaps around the house. You can use spray foam in a can to seal these area.
Put large foam weather stripping around your garage doors to winterize the garage.
Every little thing you do to winterize your home, inside and out will add up to savings and comfort during the winter.