I’ve just bought a 1912 house in saskatchewan, and i won’t have any money to do major renovations untill next winter. It costs quite a bit to heat it, so i want to tighten it up at least with temporary measures intill the summer. Obvious things would be to properly weather strip the doors and put plastic on the windows, and to check for specific drafts and try to seal them. Are there any other good tricks or things i should be looking for to help keep the warm air in and the cold air out?
Jesse David
Replies
You are right on, the biggest bang for your $ and labour is to seal air leaks.
Other than that, keep you thermostat down and put on warm clothings.
Make more money so you can burn.
Be warm.
Insulate the attic? Even if you plan on doing spray foam at a later date, having some fiberglass batts up there can really help on the heating bill.
1/2 inch foamboard cut to fit tight inside the windows not needed for light.
I stumped Theodora at trivia. -Jan.2005
You're right to chase air leaks.
Consider closing off rooms if you can isolate the heating system to that area (and no pipes will freeze!).
A time-of-day, day-of-week programmable thermostat (which could be reused in the final configuration) allows you to dial down the temps when you've a work and to drip them 5 degrees when you are asleep. They're not expensive, so that has a quick payback.