cheap DIY double "glazing "
 

I'm in the midle on a home remoddeling and the windows on one side of the house are bouble glazing in an aluminum frame. due to a still to build extention a rather large window at the back is still single pane glass and last winter it was a signifficant heat loss, to the extend that the room temperature would be 4 degrees celcius lower than what was set on the thermostat.

so in order to fix this untill the end of the winter i now stapled transparent plastic to the inside of the window frame and the results are spectacular. room temperature usually sits within half a degree of what is set on the thermostat and stays constant, it even doesn't drop off much after the heating is switched of at night.


i highly recomend this to anyone who for budgetary or practical resons can't upgrate to double pane glass. the plastic i used is the kind used to cover things, i don't think thin packing material would cut it, but anything that keeps a layer of stattic air trapped would work and you could even make a light frame so you could remove the cover during summer this would also allow you to clean up any condense that could be trapped between the layers.

the results where so spectacular for the money invested that i imagine i might win back the investment in heating costs over this winter alone.

We've bought a plastic film that was made for doing exactly this, stick it on with double sided tape then shrink it with a hair drier, they often suggest stretching it around the outside of the trim to cover any drafts and that works well other then that you loss the use of the window sill and it can get in the way of window shades so I've stuck it right over the frame that has the pane of glass so there is a half inch gap or so, most people never notice if it's done this way.

lunarhighway -

I edited the title. Hope that's ok.

My Mom used to tape clear plastic over the inside windows every fall. There is also "heat shrink" plastic sheets that are sold for the same reason. I think we've talked about using these sheets as aero-covers for the front of our cars.

CarloSW2

We did the plastic over the windows thing for a few years, but its not necessarily cheap over time. When we replaced the windows with double glazed low e windows, our sun room went from a porch to the most favorite place to hang out, it is so much warmer and quieter with good windows.

Ryland
that's pretty much my setup too and it seems to work rather well. it also still allows me to open the window when needed
skyl4rk
it's all relative. investing in double glazing will pay of in the long run, especially when windows need replacing anyway. i've claculated however that to break even using plastic insulation vs the insulated glass i have at the front it would take 150 years :p not a fair comparison as the glass insulates about twice as good as traditional double glazing and i assume my plastic attempt is still a bit below that.

still as a quick and dirty solution the results where quite spectacular and comfort has been increased so much that i can only imagine my fuel usage will be much lower as well.




bottom line is that it seems a good idea to cover your windows, the increase in confort and energy savings are imidiately noticable

when the remodeling is done all windows should be high insulation double glazing

They sell tuck strips and the shrink film for mobile homes.
real country folk use cardboard strips as battens !
Works though.