Have You Replaced Old Windows?

Recently I owned a 1950s bungalow that the previous owner had installed good quality replacement windows but had never insulated the house. There was about 2" of insulation in the attic and none at all in the walls. It was quite expensive to heat and very cold & drafty feeling, even with the new windows.

In your situation I would work on improving insulation and air sealing around the house. This will be much cheaper with a much better return on investment than new windows. Go with blown cellulose for the best bang-for-buck. If your windows are drafty, rehab them with new weatherstripping and glazing. Covering them with plastic would help, as would hanging heavy thermal curtians.

Oh and you mention your furnace runs often. A properly sized furnace should be running often in weather like this, that's not a problem at all. Only way it's a problem is if the furnace is running constantly and not keeping the house warm enough.

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You mentioned doing caulking on the inside of the sills. If you caulk inside the storm windows, don't caulk all of the storm window bottom to sill. You need to leave a weep area for the condensated water to get out. Otherwise, the sill will rot where it joins the bottom of the storm window due to trapped water.

RF

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DH is a remodeling contractor and we have an old farmhouse built in 1883. Our windows looked to be the original when we moved in. The plastic I put on the inside of the windows for many a winter would just billow from the winds coming in. After DH put more insulation in the attic he started putting in replacement windows one room at a time as money allowed. It took a few years but it really did make a big difference in the heat loss in our house. In the last few years he also resided the house and that helped a lot too as he insulated and put Tyvec up before he put on the vinyl siding. We heat with electric, have an all electric house, and our total bill is $199 a month. We consider that not too bad for our house.

I love my triple paned krypton windows.

I have had old, single pane, drafty windows. old, single paned, caulked up windows. double paned, windows.

I am sitting on my couch in front of the windows on a cold (20ish), windy night and I feel not a hint of coldness coming through my triple paned krypton windows. I could not say that with any of the others. I always felt a draft, or the cold coming through. My walls have no insulation, same as the last three houses I have owned. I don't feel the cold coming through like I used too. I know it was coming through those old, single paned windows. I love my triple paned windows!

I love my triple paned windows! They are also very quiet. I live very near a train track. My house still vibrates with the trains, but I can hardly hear them. I am a day sleeper and you'd never know it was day time with a busy highway within 100 yards with my triple paned windows!

I love my triple paned krypton windows, installed by eric jeeper right here on HT. He did a great job of installing them too. Did I mention I love my triple pane krypton windows???

Jena

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We reinsulated our old farmhouse, removing the interior plaster which had been destroyed by nailing paneling over it back in the 1970s, and then putting foam board with foil over the interior sheathing and then new drywall. After that (which really sealed up the house except for windows) we replaced almost all of the windows, and cut our heating cost down a noticeable amount, and increase our comfort a great deal. But our house's original windows had been replaced at some time in the past, and they weren't especially good windows, and they had aluminum combination storms and screens on the outside. Some of the replacements were entire window units, and some were just replacement sash units, but I feel that it was a very worthwhile project.

But , make sure everything else is insulated and sealed up first, as windows can be expensive.