Buttoning Up for Winter!

The cold winds of winter are fast approaching and with it memories of the furnace working over time and those frigid zones surrounding our windows - freezing our feet and making it impossible to sit in our favorite sofa.

So how do we improve the insulation of our windows to temper that difference and reduce those cold differentials?

Storm Windows

In my old home we did an energy audit and per their recommendation I installed storm windows. That extra layer of glass was very effective at creating an additional layer of dead air space, significantly improving the insulation at our windows and reducing the cold. And they did not affect our view in any way.

It became part of our fall family ritual when, after that last leaf raking, my wife and I, with our three kids, would spend a day bringing out the tall ladder, retrieving the windows from storage, cleaning them up, tighten up the attachment clips, and install the storms.

We tried to make it a fun event - even cleaning out the eve troughs since we had the tall ladder out. Once done, we sure noticed the difference, as the house was tighter and warmer. And miraculously over the many years we had those storms none were broken in the process or over the summer!

EcoSmart Insulating Shades

For our new home, where the winds are even more severe, we elected a less expensive option - to install insulating cellular shades from GordonsWindowDecor.com. They are referred to as moveable insulation - so you can pull them up so they are virtually invisible when not required, and lower them for insulation when needed. We can take advantage of passive solar gain, vent our space when necessary, or create cozy privacy, all in a matter of seconds.

We installed the shades with side tracks and found them to be every bit as insulating as the storms - if not more so because there is a double layer of insulation within the shade AND the dead air space between the window and the shade. (A side benefit we discovered is that we really appreciate the shades almost more in the summer to reduce the heat gain as we do not have central air in Vermont.)

The ultimate luxury - since this option gave us a few dollars to spare, and we are lazy in the morning, we motorized our bedroom shades. With the remote at bedside, my wife can lift the shades to check the weather when still snuggled under the covers.

As for the family ritual – well the kids are thrilled that they no longer need to pull out the big ladder (don’t even ask me about the gutters!). We found that EcoSmart insulating shades really are a great way to solve the heat loss problem and make our home comfortable.