I read this tip in my favorite magazine, Mother Earth News, a few years ago, and finally got around to trying it this year. It works!
Instead of expensive window insulation kits that are hard to install and can be used only one year, try this: buy bubble wrap. Cut it to fit each window. Dampen the window and apply the bubble wrap, flat side to the window.
It's that simple. It lets the light through, looks a bit like glass block windows, and does keep the room warmer. If I touch the bubble wrap then touch the window, the wrap is definitely warmer. My bedroom is about 4 degrees warmer this year!
If the wrap comes off or you lift it up for any reason, just re-dampen the window, and it's good as new. At the end of the cold weather, I will remove the wrap, and roll it up separately for each window with a note in the middle to tell me which window it goes on, then I'll store it until next year. I bought my bubble-wrap at Walmart, about $4.50 for 100 feet. A roll and a half did all of my windows (except the one by the computer, since I watch the birds at my feeder through that one). The kits in the store cost a LOT more, and next year, this is free!
Source: Mother Earth News
By Free2B from North Royalton, OH
I have done this and it really makes a great deal of difference depending on the measurements of your windows. I have a patio door and in the dead of the winter I can't stand in front of it long before I get chilled. After I put up the bubble wrap I could touch the plastic and it felt warm, also I can stand in front of it without feeling chilled at all.
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Just read a tip in Ready Made magazine about putting up bubble wrap on a window with tape to mask a bathroom window. I am going one step further.
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A great way to insulate windows in the winter and summer, is to use Bubble-wrap. It not only insulates, but it still lets light in.
Someone had submitted putting bubble wrap on the windows for winter. I live in a mobile home. How do we go about attaching it so it stays up and keeps the drafts out?