The Easiest Ways to Insulate a Home

Insulating Your Home Before It is Built

• The best and cheapest time to insulate your home is before it is built. By placing insulating materials in the attic and the exterior walls during construction, you provide decades of insulation at a low cost. There are different types of insulating materials. Some insulation materials are thick puffy fabrics laid inside walls and in gaps between beams. Some are thick foams injected into walls or sprayed onto exposed beams that harden over time. When your home is under construction, you ask your builder to add insulation. You will find it adds little to the cost of your home.

  Using double-paned vinyl doors and windows will make your home warmer; vinyl doors and windows cost less than comparable wood doors and windows. They will save money during construction and over the life of your home.

Insulating Your Home After It is Built

• The biggest heat losses in a home are through doors and windows. Make sure all doors have door jambs that seal tight with the bottom of the door. Buy insulating strips at your hardware store that you can apply to doors and door jambs to create good seals. You can use the same materials to ensure wooden windows seal when closed.

  Windows can be further insulated using insulating film. This reflective material is a clear plastic that you cut to fit your windows. You apply it to the outside of each window and the material reflects up to 70 percent of summer sunlight and retains more than 50 percent of the heat that would otherwise escape through your windows in winter. Insulating film can be purchased in most hardware stores.

  Insulating materials can be added, post-construction, to attics and crawl spaces quite cost effectively. You should speak to your hardware shop owner, or a contractor, about how to purchase and install these materials.

  Another cheap way to insulate your home is using carpets. Carpets prevent heat from escaping through floors. Wall-to-wall carpet is best, but even large area rugs can do a great deal to make a room more comfortable. Window curtains can serve the same purpose. By combining insulating film and window curtains, you can prevent more than 80 percent of all heat lost through windows. You can keep your home much cooler in the summer months by keeping sunlight from reflecting inside your house to warm walls, floors and ceilings.

Insulating Your Home is Always a Good Investment

• You will be happy with the money you save by insulating your home. You will also be glad to know you are helping to reduce global warming by reducing the amount of electricity and natural gas you use to heat and cool your home.