COUNTRY SKILLS

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We have thick, old, wooden doors and well-insulated wooden doors (combination storm/screen) at the entries. I taped clear poly over both sides of the glass in both doors to give the same R-value as an expensive triple-glazed sash. To make an effective weather seal, I fastened EPDM to 3/4"-square wood strips and tacked it with small nails to the insides of both door frames. Along the inside of the door bottoms, I installed adjustable, rubber edged aluminum floor sweeps. At night we roll "draft dogs" (fabric tubes filled with sawdust) against the door. The fabric comes from cutoff legs of old jeans; the sawdust comes straight from the woodpile. When a blizzard howls, we pack them along the door sill between the main and storm doors as well.

Pets Don't Help

Of course, the draft dogs don't last long if our pair of pets gets ahold of them. Some of the poly does need annual replacing thanks to the house beasts scratching to get in on a cold evening. I screwed scratch panels of 1/4" plywood over the bottom half of the storm doors, but the great fools jump up and claw the poly on top if we don't answer on their very first howl. The tom cat hurls himself at the plastic with all claws extended if not admitted on first meow. By winter's end, there's as much tape as poly sheet covering the front door and the cat's favorite living room window. But, we all stay warm and fuel efficient at a reasonable insulating cost.

An Analysis of Cost, Heat, and Money Savings

We all want to conserve energy, but we also need to get the most fuel efficiency for the dollar. Tightening siding and caulking foundation, doors, and windows will eliminate 30% to 50% of the heat a typical house loses to infiltration, and do so at a negligible cost. An insulation contractor can calculate savings from added protection, but you can do a rough estimate yourself. Assuming you've already caulked the house thoroughly and have some roof insulation and storm windows and doors, multiply annual heating costs by 20% each for maximum potential cellar and roof heat loss, and by 30% each for wall and window or door loss.

Now price needed fiberglass, foam panels, and replacement windows and doors and calculate the costs of bringing R-values up to snuff. Then divide costs by annual savings to find time needed for payback. In our house, R-R windows would add only R-2 over the R-6 of the old storms I use, and would cost at least $2,500 (and that's if I did the installing). I calculate that they would provide a 2/8 or 25% reduction in the window's 30% contribution to a loss of a $1,000 cost per year. If we heated entirely with oil )—$75 per year at best—it would take 33 years to make up the cost. However, if we heated with a combination of wood and oil at a cost of about $500 per year, our great-grandchildren would still be waiting for a full payback.

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