Budget-Friendly Ways to Insulate Your Home’s Windows and Doors

If you want a comfortable interior without blowing a fortune on your utility bills, then you’ll want to make sure your windows and doors are adequately insulated. Without it, your home will experience drafts that will end up wasting plenty of energy and money. If it’s boiling outside and you want to make sure the cool, air conditioned air stays in while the hot air stays out, you need to make sure that your doors and windows are properly insulated.

Luckily, there are plenty of ways to make sure your home is well insulated that are both affordable, and will help you realize significant energy savings.

Patch Up Air Leaks

The first things you should do is find out where the leaks are occurring, and plug them up accordingly. The best way to do this is to caulk your window and door casings inside and out. When you’re done, there ideally should be no more exchanging of air between the indoors and outdoors. To add extra protection to drafts, add some weatherstripping in the sash.

Make Use of Draft Stoppers

You can quickly and easily stop a draft in its tracks by adding a draft stopper under your door. While you can find a ton of stylish door stoppers or “snakes” on the market, you can even make one yourself if you’ve got a bit of a crafty side to you. All you need to do is sew a tube of fabric that fits the width of your door or window and fill it with uncooked rice.

Add Insulating Window Film

If you don’t have the budget nor the desire to completely change your windows, you can still add an insulating effect on the windows you’ve already got by adding insulating window film. This is a plastic, sticky sheet that you place directly to your window panes, and acts as an additional layer of protection against the outdoor temperature. Keep in mind that while the film is rather transparent, it is not entirely clear, which might be an issue for you if there are specific windows that you want to provide an unobstructed view of the outdoors.

Stick on Rubber Weather Sealing

Adding self-stick rubber weather sealing along your windows can significantly help to keep drafts at bay. All you need to do is cut the strips according to your windows’ specific dimensions, then peel and stick them along the frame to ward off any drafts. You can easily find these sealers online or at you local hardware store.

Hang Cellular Shades

Also referred to as ‘honeycomb shades’, cellular shades insulate your home while still letting the light come in through the windows. They’re made with fabric folds that create many layers of air pockets which insulate windows much like a down quilt would keep you warm in bed. Just about every home improvement or design stores sells cellular shades, and will custom-fit them for any size or shape window in your home.

Install Storm Doors and Windows

While this option might be the most expensive on this list, it’s highly effective. In fact, storm windows placed over old windows can actually offer the same effect as brand new, energy-efficient windows.

The above ideas can effectively prevent any unnecessary exchange of air from the inside out. Any money you spend on these tactics will be more than made up for in energy savings on your utility bills.