After I posted last week about buying cellular blinds, I got this very nice letter from reader Mary M. Well, actually it was from her husband, The Energy Doctor. . . .
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If you have already purchased your blinds, you may want to stop reading right here.
If you have not yet taken the plunge, go the Energy Star Web site and spend a lot of time educating yourself there on home air sealing. I am an Energy Star partner, and a rater on new Energy Star homes, as well as an auditor on existing homes, so I can speak with some authority.
In a typical uninsulated home, the total heat loss through your windows might range form 10 – 30 percent. The potential savings could ONLY be 10 – 30 percent, and that is if you close them off totally. The biggest two Energy wasters in older homes are air leakage, and uninsulated walls and ceilings. Windows would be third, forth or fifth on my list of things to tackle.
Check out the Home Performance with Energy Star Program that New York State offers through the NYSERDA office. You should find a link at the Energy Star web site. For a few hundred dollars, you can have a certified professional use state of the art tools to determine where your heat is going, and recommend the best places to spend your energy dollars. In addition, they can tell you if there are rebates or special financing available to you.
As for the cellular blinds, you can see from this box cut from their web site that the stated R-value ASSUMES you have double pane low E glass, which has about an R-3 itself. The stated values below include that assumed R vale in their figures, somewhat deceptively, I believe.
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Cellular Shade R-Value |
|
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3/8″ double cell |
*5.05 – 5.45 |
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3/8″ single cell |
*4.76 – 5.37 |
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3/4″ single cell |
*4.74 – 5.24 |
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*Values represented are based on a Low-E double pane window combined with a cellular shade. Low-E is also referred to as double glazing. The higher the value, the more insulative the product. |
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These blinds are not likely to deal with the air leakage that is a big culprit in older windows or the air leakage from the trim work around the windows. They will provide some relief from the cold windowpanes, but not nearly enough to justify the cost, in my estimation. If you truly can’t afford to replace the worst of them, try the shrink wrap window kits mentioned below. We use them every year, and the cost is between 3 and 15 dollars per window. (I like 3M the best) These window kits help with air leakage, convection loss, and radiant loss. Plus your windows won’t fog up, or sweat, provided they are nice and dry to begin with.
Then with the rest of your money, pay someone for a blower door test, do a Combustion safety test on your furnace, check your duct work for leaks, and look for attic bypasses, the #1 source of heat loss in an older home.
Mary posted on some of these topics last December in “Toasty Warm Rooms“.
Best wishes,
The Energy Doctor
That certainly gives me some things to think about!
Mary blogs at Turkey Farms Treasures, and “The Doctor” (not to be confused with Dr. Who) has a website entitled The Energy Doctor (they caution that it is a work in progress at this point!)
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Our new home is older, with single pain, oops I mean, pane windows (though these panes might cause us financial pain come this winter),and I’m worried about how much heat will escape from them. We had an OK time cooling the house this summer but maybe heat leakage in winter is worse than cool leakage in summer.
I know it isn’t cheap to replace windows so I’m considering getting insulated drapes. Does the Energy Doctor have any opinions on these?
Also, if I wanted to get an “energy audit” (I’ve heard about those things but aren’t sure exactly what the heck they are), do I call someone like the Energy Doctor? I guess I should go troll the Energy Star site and see. Maybe that will give me something to blog about.
Leah Ingram
http://suddenlyfrugal.blogspot.com
I am renovating my very old home (see http://www.newyorkrenovator.blogspot.com) and have gotten quotes and done some research. I see that the Energy Dr. is correct.
My house is 1680 square feet. To have a company come in and blow in fiberglass installation would cost us almost $4,000 (without financial aid). Your estimated cost for blinds, at half that, is a waste, in my frugal renovation opinion.
Jenn, it would be faaaar better to insulate your home IMMEDIATELY. Then, just get new windows. Paying thousands of dollars for cellular blinds is like putting a solid-gold band-aid on a broken leg.
Oh, by the way– blown-in insulation can be done either on the outside of the house or the inside. I’ve seen it done both ways.
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Insulation is very important on those chilly days. The best I have seen is at Home Depot. It will take some work but, it will save you a bundle. You will feel better and your health will be better too I am told. Plus I remember freezing without it. I almost died at 30 degrees below zero. The pain was horrid. Good luck. Annette