Weather insulation tips and products (fit in, apartment, rent)

[agnthvc]

I am going into an apartment in august. I am going to need the best tips for weather stipping windows and the sliding glass door. . . I will also have a fireplace in the apartment.. Any warming and insulation tips would be welcomed. List any products here please.

[Arrby]

First, don't use the fireplace. It will cost more than it saves. Unless there are glass doors, cut a piece of foam board to press fit in the opening - even closed dampers usually let a lot of room heat pass up the chimney.

Caulk is cheap, but get the landlord to agree - if you make a mess it is expensive to clean up.

Insulated curtains are available from Lowes and Home Depot and sometimes Walmart, as are insulated curtain liners. I use both over my patio door and largest window. This will be your most affordable solution for the sliding patio door. They must extend above the window (door) and fit as close to the floor as possible - within an inch or even less.

Relatively inexpensive (~ $45) single cell insulating shades can be purchased and custom cut to size at Lowes and I think Home Depot as well. The payback on these might be two years or more.

Weatherstripping the windows and patio door is not likely to be feasible, at least without the landlord's cooperation. Shop the paint isle at the Lowes/HD/Ace for thin (.3 mil or even less) painters plastic. This can be taped over the windows for the winter giving you a disposable storm window.

Think about zone heating. While electric resistance heating is the most expensive way to heat a space, it does allow you to heat just one area - the bedroom, say. You could keep the bedroom at 70 deg. and the rest of the apartment at 50, if you choose. Any heater with a plug will have the exact same efficiency as any other - electric resistance heat is electric resistance heat. Some are radiant heaters and some are convective, and you may want to choose one or the other, but for a given amount of electricity all will produce the same amount of heat.

If you have windows facing the sun you can get an amazing amount of solar gain, but you have to be able to open and close the blinds in a timely manner or the windows will lose all the gains once the sun starts to set.

Pretty much anything else has paybacks far too long for an apartment dweller.

[md21722]

Make sure your doors and windows do not have air leaks. Weather stripping can save you a bundle and make your home more comfortable. If your sliding door is single pane I would probably choose another apartment. The sun will help warm your apartment so you don't want to block it out with thick, heavy curtains.

[Arrby]

IF your window faces south, and IF it is not blocked from the sun by trees, buildings, overhangs, etc., an IF it is double pane glass, then while the sun is out you will get some heat gain. The other 16 -20 hours a day that uncovered patio door will lose heat faster than the rest of the apartment combined.

By all means, put insulated curtains and liners on a traverse rod so you can let the sun in when appropriate.

[Bob from down south]

Your choice of a domicile will make much more of a difference than any amount of sealing, weatherstripping, windowdressing or other measures. A single-pane glass arcadia door on an apartment is a dead giveaway that little attention was paid to energy efficiency when the place was built. And it's a security risk as well--those glass doors are trivially easy to get through.

Saving $50 in rent and forking out $100 extra every month in utilities won't get you ahead.

You can get an average figure for utilities at a particular address by calling Colo Springs Utilities.