Steal this idea! Saving heat means less cost, less waste

After moving into our beautiful house overlooking a nature preserve, we realized the cost of heating and cooling our dream home would be phenomenal. It was like living in a greenhouse, with all the wild swings of temperature one finds in a desert. Our cold nights were very very cold and our hot days were sometimes too much for our A/C to handle.

home.woh.rr.com/coffeyrush/WindowB.htm

The worst part was trying to sleep. Some rooms in the house became overly hot at night, while others were comfortable. That's when I decided to take action.

If you go to the store and buy your own materials, you may create Window Blankets (see link, above) for as many or as few of your windows as you like. When our power recently went off during sub-zero temperatures, our indoor temperature went from 75 degrees F to not lower than 58 degrees F after more than twelve hours of the house being pummelled by gale-force winds.

Start with a bathroom window in your house. Cover up half of it (so you still have some natural daylight). One average sized window typically loses as much heat as an entire bedroom-sized wall. How much coal/oil/electricity/gas do you think you could save by covering basement and bathroom windows this way?

Think on these things!

posted by coffeyrush on 2/10/2008 1:12 pm | COMMENTS (2)
Comments (2)

Good thinking, Earon! I wonder if it would help if these window blankets CoffeeRush is talking about could be put up only when the sun starts going down so that at least you get some light during the day and warmth from the sun...that is if the sun ever makes it through the clouds :)

I remember that my mom made similar window coverings when I was growing up. But instead of using velcro to harness them up there, she made blinds out of them. She also applied a magnetic strip along the edge of the blinds so that when they were fully down, they would stick to the wall. Again, that will block the air flow, so I'm not sure if that would be such a great solution either. However, this way, it would be easier to pull them up and down instead of having to pull off big panels.

I wonder if any experts out there who could shed some light on this (no pun intended!).

posted by katiek on 2/13/2008 2:17 pm

As long as you still have ample natural lighting from the outdoors and do not seal up the air envelope of the home so that there is insufficient air exchange with the outdoors, energy conservation of this type can be useful. In the 1980's we found that efforts to conserve energy were allowing the build-up of high levels of indoor pollution that were higher than we would tolerate outdoors. If you are going to seal up your home, have it tested for molds and radon. Be sure to avoid toxic cleaning, painting and air freshening materials, and be sure that you don't have a lot of formaldehyde-containing particle board, new carpeting and plastics that are not "less toxic" types, unvented gas appliances, contamination from an attached garage, etc. Chilcren and the elderly are especially susceptible to indoor pollutants.

Many people do not feel well in high levels of flourescent lighting, so blocking off windows may require less energy-efficient incandescent lighting - and a lot of it - to respond to our need for sunlight during the winter months. Seasonal affective disorder (winter blues) has been associated with diminished sunlight during the winter months.

Sustainable house design begins with the selection of a suitable construction site, architectural and engineering design of the house and selection of suitable building materials. Once it has been built, do-it-yourself retrofits should be undertaken with care, and in consultation with people who have long-term experience in living with the results. There are many good books on the matket on the subject of indoor pollution, safe indoor environments, nontoxic homes, etc. Your local American Lung Association affiliate, and the US Environmental Protection Agency, as well as your state and local health departments, should be able to direct you to these resources.

Peace,

Earon Davis, MPH

posted by Earon on 2/13/2008 12:07 pm

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