Do any of you people put that shrinking plastic film over your windows for better insulating? Then you use your hairdryer to get it stretched tight. I was just wondering…how much it really helps. Is it worth it? It is a lot of trouble it seems to me.
When I lived in a drafty old house in Maine we did the window film thing, but not the kind that shrinks taut (supposedly) with a hair dryer. We would get cheap strips of lath and use that to tack the plastic to the outside of the house. In the really out-of-plumb room with the oldest windows we did it inside too. Not pretty, but amazingly effective. It didn’t do much for radiant cold, but just closing off the drafts was a HUGE improvement. A little air seepage in one area doesn’t seem bad, but multiply that by a houseful of windows and doors and a house can get really cold really quickly when the woodstove goes out!
I remember hearing something along the lines of (paraphrasing the math, but it gets the point across) “If you have 12 drafty windows and 2 drafty doors, it’s the equivalent of having one window open a half an inch all year round”. Makes sense when you think about it. Open a window a crack on a windy day and see how much air comes in. That’s a lot of air, just don’t notice it when it’s dispersed throughout the house. Don’t forget, it’s happens in winter too, but no one feels a warm draft on the back of their neck.
Whether it shrinks or not, any airtight film will do wonders if, and only if, the windows leak air. If the windows are air-tight, it is a waste of time. Saran ™ wrap would work - the idea is air-tight, not necessarily pretty - if “pretty” is important, the heat-shrinnk might be worth the extra time.
The important part is NOT the shrink - it is the edge tacked down enough that air can’t get past.
Before going to the trouble of film, look at the window and see if you caqna seal it using a caulk gun - it the trim (interior or exterior has pulled away from the wall, air can seep aorund the window. If this is what the problem is, the film (usually applied to the trim) will do nothing - you will need to either seal the gap or apply the film around the trim.
When we bought our house in the 80s, it was double glazed except for a fairly big window on a landing half way up the stairs. On a cold day, if you sat on the bottom step, you could feel the cold air flowing down.
I bought this shrink film and stuck it on. It was tricky to get right, but I took the time and did a pretty good job with double sided tape all round and a hair dryer to shrink it. I also put some silica gel at the bottom to absorb any moisture that got trapped. It worked a treat and the bottom step is toasty warm these days.
From memory, the package said that it should be good for two or three years. That was twenty years ago and it is still there. The colour of the wood frame is not a match these days, but I can live with that.
I also put an old duvet over the trap door to the loft to stop the cold air coming down through the joins.
That’s not true, if the windows are drafty it’ll help stop the draft and that’ll make a world of difference, yes, that part is true. If the windows are not drafty it’ll create a layer of insulation to stop cold air from conevecting through the glass. This is the reason we have double and triple pane windows. You get a layer of air trapped in the middle and the suddenly the heat from outside (in summer) or inside (in winter) has a harder time moving to the other side.
Did this in a drafty house I lived in during grad school (well, my housemate did anyway). As others have said it did do wonders in cutting down on drafts. Keeping it taught isn’t purely aesthetic though: if it’s too loose and the window is really drafty, the plastic can act like a diaphragm, “breathing” in and out on gusty days. This creates an annoying noise and I believe it puts more strain on the tape sealing the edges, necessitating the occasional touch-up.
Oh man, I finally got around to doing this on my big picture window and it totally makes a difference. Previously you could feel the draft on your neck when sitting on the couch in front of the window. Now, nothing!
I’ve got the same brand/style of window here in my home office as I do in the front room, and I didn’t put plastic on it. It’s in the single digits here in Cleveland and windy as hell, and I feel the cold air blasting through the office window.
It took me under an hour to do one huge window (65" x 90") with 3 sections, by myself with a crummy hair dryer. Considering the temps this winter, I think it’s worth it.
I attempted it for the first time this winter in our bedroom, where we have two largish drafty windows. I used a storebought kit that came with tape and everything. It was actually quite quick and easy to set up. It took me maybe 40 minutes to do both windows. I haven’t noticed a gigantic difference, but I think it’s made some. Our room used to be noticeably colder than the hallway when we walked in. Now it feels about the same as the rest of the house.
I read somewhere recently that rather than plastic wrap, use bubble wrap. Not on major picture windows, obviously, but on out of the way windows or windows that have drapes or blinds anyway. The article said you don’t have to use any adhesive, just spray the bubble wrap with water and it will stick to the window. The article said that some furniture stores will give away big sheets of the stuff that their products come wrapped in. Very clever.
We have a sunporch with 2 walls of continuous window panes. I put the plastic wrap over all, except for the last 2 foot section.
The ones covered in plastic do not ice over or even get frosty. The section I didn’t cover ices over constantly.
So, I guess it does make a difference! There are no drafts to stop, but the layer of trapped air helps stop the cold air from coming inside.
I use plastic on my windows. I’m living in a house from the built circa 1730. I tend to leave my curtains closed during the winter as well so it doesn’t much matter what plastic I use. The shrink wrap kits go on clearance in the spring so I tend to buy them then making them one of the cheapest and most convenient options because they include the tape. They work best for stopping drafts. I only hit some of them with a hair dryer to smooth them out, on particularly drafty windows the plastic makes noise otherwise.
I lived in a rental house where when it got too cold out the first winter, the baseboard heaters would not cycle off. Alarmed, I put plastic sheeting over the front picture window (with single-pane glass). When I came back indoors after staple-gunning the sheeting up, the heater had already shut off.
I’ve used the shrink-wrap stuff in the past, and I found that it made a big difference.
Bubble wrap probably would work somewhat better than plain plastic, but you don’t want to stick it directly to the glass. The whole point is to have multiple layers with an air gap in between.
This here.
I lived in a house about 15 years ago, and I decided to do put up regular plastic sheeting to cover the inside window. I covered around the window frame, tho, not just the glass. I wasn’t too careful to make it tight, I just wanted the breezes to be stopped. The result was amazing! When the winds outside were something like 20-30 mph, the plastic was stretched like a sail, and it was as firm to the touch as a basketball! It was phenomenal to realize how much air had been coming in.
As a result, the house was burning up in the winter, and cool as ice cream in the summer, and the heating and cooling bill dropped dramatically. The drapes covered the plastic, until the N wind came thru!
Since the OP is looking for opinions, let’s move this to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
The point is that bubble wrap has built-in air gaps of its own.
It has air gaps over a portion of its area, but not all of it. Call it an extra half-layer.
even if the window is not drafty it adds another insulating layer.
sit near a window, you can feel that side of your body being cooler because of heat loss. the film reduces that.
hold the back of your hand below a window. you can feel cold air flowing and sinking to the floor.
a large picture windows will have no storm windows. even double or triple pane the film will add another layer.
the film helps you reduce heat loss and have more comfortable living space near your windows. well worth the cost and effort if you live in a serious cold winter area.