Not financially speaking, but in my house. I know we are in the middle of summer, but now is the time to evaluate how last winter went and what you can do differently to prepare for next winter. We keep our heat set at 65 in the winter. Honestly it is all we can afford, because even keeping it that low our heating bill is $400 a month. Oh, how we would love to get a pellet stove. That would allow us to spend much less on heating each winter and we would actually be warm, instead of cold. But I digress.
We have been analyzing our home and trying to figure out what we can do differently this year. A pellet stove would cost about $3000 right off the bat, so that isn't an option. Our furnace is old and probably not that efficient, but again that would take a lot of cash to get a new one. We talked about how cold the downstairs is and where in particular it is drafty. We know of two major areas that needed repair. The fireplace shoots a cold breeze through our den all winter long. We have spent the past 2 winters with a moving blanket covering the opening, but that didn't even help that much.
The door from the kitchen into the garage has major gaps around it that you can see daylight through and there is a cold breeze that comes through in the winter. Kevin tried weather stripping, but it always came off within a few days of putting it up. Kevin also adjusted the door frame to try to close some of the gaps, but that made the door very difficult to close and still didn't fix all the leaks. It was time to do some more serious, read expensive, fixes.
The first thing we did was get a new damper for the fireplace. It is one that fits into the very top of the chimney and is completely air tight. We wanted to go with a local place but they wanted $200 for the damper and $200 to install it. They implied it was difficult to do. We started looking online. It turns out it was very simple for Kevin to install and we were able to order a damper with all the supplies needed to install it for $159 online. It came quickly and took Kevin about an hour to install.
Next up was the door. It was time to replace the whole door and door frame. We had tried everything else we could think of. Again Kevin did it himself, with the help of my dad. It did take them much of the day, but the total cost was under $150. It appears to be airtight. We don't see daylight anywhere and don't feel any breezes.
Only winter will tell whether these fixes totally took care of the draft problems. For just over $300 we took care of the 2 biggest areas that were leaking air. I have high hopes that our heating bills will be lower, but am very excited about the house being warmer more than anything. Have you taken the time to evaluate your home and find ways you can improve your heating efficiency? Now is the time!
Friday, August 08, 2008
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3 comments:
I think I read that if you slowly move a lit incense stick around window and doors, you'll see where there is a leak because the smoke from the stick will go towards it.
My DH did this last year. The whole sitting there with a match to see where the leak was coming from and all! But fixing those leaks made a HUGE difference. Good luck!
When I was visiting my neighbors recently I noticed they had a really cool looking fireplace cover (insert?), it was black and blended nicely with the black metal. I asked about it and it was FOAM! Black foam. He had cut it to fit from a sheet and it had enough give to be wedged in tightly. His was left over from his work, but I think I can find something close. Ours is drafty too, and doors will cost about $200, plus installation! And it will be easy to remove when we use the fireplace, just will have to let it cool before replacing.
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