Temperatures are dropping and heating costs are rising. Are you tired of spending your days shivering in your home because you don’t want to turn up the thermostat? Sure, you could install energy-efficient doors and windows, increase your attic insulation, or replace your heating system with a new state-of-the-art furnace. But those projects all come with a hefty price tag. Check out our quick (and inexpensive) hacks to make your home feel warmer in frigid February temps—without putting a chill on your wallet.
1. Make Sure Heating Vents Aren’t Blocked
Take a look at how furniture is arranged in various rooms of your house. Are couches, chairs, beds, curtains, rugs, and other furniture arranged in front of vents, registers, or radiators? If so, they could be blocking the flow of heated air into your rooms. Simply rearranging furniture so it’s not positioned in front of heat sources can make your rooms feel much warmer (and a new room layout could be a nice change of pace to refresh your space). For an even bigger impact, install heat and air deflectors—simple curved plastic accessories that attach to heating vents—on vents throughout your home to make air distribution more efficient: in the winter, point the deflectors down to direct warm air towards the floor; in the summer, point them up to direct air conditioned air towards the ceiling. Watch this video for tips on how to arrange your furniture and install the deflectors:
2. Dodge Door Drafts
Can you feel cold air seeping in from the bottom of exterior doors? It’s a common problem, particularly in older houses, but Frost King has a hassle-free and inexpensive fix: our Double Draft Stop, an ingenious design that features two insulating foam tubes housed in a simple cloth cover. You just slide the draft stop under your door and close it to insulate both sides of the door. You can use it in drafty windows, too. Simply trim the door draft to the right size, then close the window on it for instant insulation. For extra draft protection, keep doors and windows tightly closed and locked.
If the gap between the door and the threshold is too big to be stopped by the Double Draft Stop or you want a more permanent solution, add one of our door sweeps to the bottom of your door. Door sweeps are strips made of vinyl, rubber, bristles, or another sealing material that is attached to the very bottom of the door on the exterior side to provide a tight seal against the elements. Frost King also makes an easy-to-install slide-on door bottom that slips over the bottom of the door to create a tight seal as well as a self-stick design to block drafts. An added bonus: a door stop also keeps out snow in the winter and bugs during the warmer months. Watch this video for step-by-step installation directions:
3. Install Window Kits
You don’t have to freeze at home just because you have old, single-pane windows. Our Window Kits stop cold outside air from seeping in through leaky windows by creating a crystal-clear plastic barrier that creates an airtight seal between windows and your home. You just cut the plastic sheet to fit your window, adhere it to the window frame with double-sided tape, and use a hair dryer to shrink the plastic until it’s tight and wrinkle free. Watch this video for easy installation instructions:4. Add Weatherstripping
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: if your house is drafty, weatherstripping is your friend. Use it to seal leaks all over your home:
• Around windows and doors
• Around recessed lights and built-in light fixtures
• Around pipes where plumbing meets a wall
• Around the attic door or hatch
• Around the chimney
• Around electrical outlets and sockets
• In gaps in the attic and basement
Frost King has a variety of different weatherstripping products for virtually any application. Watch this video to learn how to pick the right weatherstripping for your job:
