Cheap Window Insulation Plastic Winter Guard

by chrisayad in Workshop > Energy

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Cheap Window Insulation Plastic Winter Guard

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The idea from this came from tv. I saw teh pre-made kit that does basically the same thing i did but I am sure that it costs a little more than what i spent, although the extra time I spent could have easily been accounted for in cash... it takes about 6 times longer to install but at least you dont have to go get it or find it or pay for it.
If you already have plastic wrap and masking tape.

Get All Materials Together

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Wall-friendly tape- anything that dosent leave marks and is removable
Scissors
Plastic Wrap - uh, any kind of plastic i think..
Electrical Tape - for parts where flexible tape is needed

Line Up the Roll

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You can start at either end, and leave about 4 inches off the side of the window, enough to let it touch the wall and you can tape it easily.
Each pass should cover the previous one by at least 2 inches i did it like 4 inches.
Also pay attention to how many you are going to need to make across so that you can space them accordingly.

Tape End of Roll

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nothing has to be exact, but put half of the plastic on the tape and leave the other half of the tape exposed for the next step.

Re-inforce Tape With Another Tape

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this was enough for me to make sure that it didnt fall off, even when i tugged on it a little bit.
If your carpet is dirty or just hard to see the plastic you can put a piece of paper underneath and it might be easier.

Put It on the Wall

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you know, stick the tape on the ceiling.
Make sure that you put it on straight and there should be no messed up edges on the plastic, if there are, spend some time to fix them.

Cut

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you can leave it dangling, and make your tape for the bottom if you have to.

For Bottom Tapers

just make another tape thing for the bottom, it should be able to work but if it does not use pushpins to hold it on there

Lean Back, Strech

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pull iy\t back and make sure it is as smooth as you can get it, you can rearrange the top if you have to, so that it is a nice plane surface, mine has a lot of waves going downward but i was in a hurry, so i stretched it too much so what.
leaning back also makes sure that it doesnt touch other parts you may have laid down already.

Tuck Under/Tape Under

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If your lucky like me, you have a sill that you can just strech the plastic over and it will stick because of the tension.
Otherwise, just tape it on the bottom.
I have an ugly sill..

Repeat

?

Sides

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I was running out of my good tape so i had to use stupid skinny tape instead. It worked.... though, In most spots I had to double-tape it.

Testing?

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Before I finished taping up the sides, i stuck my hand in the opening on the bottom corner, and i could actually feel the cold air coming in, and it made me happy just to know that I actually spent this time for a reason.
By the way, I have 4 windows in my room and I covered 3 of them and I left the heater on the same settings and its a full 10 degrees F hotter in here. The results vary depending on the windows and how cracked and old and leaky your windows are. I could feel a draft on some spots with my bare hands some days so I had pretty bad windows. If you have double pane windows you probably wouldbt be reading this anyway but great job.

well on to the sides

Sides

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I just started from the plastic, and worked my way to the wall on the corners and places where the palstic didnt touch the wall. Some places, I could make a small corner out of the plastic and then tape it, and then use another piece to attach that to the wall. Here is a typical way using electrical tape.

the last picture with my thumb is showing you how you can make sure that the whole window is sealed when the tape is directly touching the wall like that all the way around.

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