We sure have our abundance of old homes around here. Some of these older homes were built for millworkers, servants quarters, summer homes and retreats. While charming, these homes are almost always cold and drafty in the winter. Here are a few tips to help you survive the winter;

make those windows more air tight. An economical way to do this is to run out to the local hardware or builder supply and pick up the plastic SHRINKABLE window film. The shrink type is the best. You put it on and heat it with a hair dryer to shrink tight. Once shrunk you can’t even tell its there except you will notice the lack of draft.

If you’re burning a wood stove, it will consume a lot of oxygen from the room. That has to be made up so it sucks in through the cracks, doors and windows in the house. I remember when I fired up my wood stove I could sit on the couch and it felt like someone breathing on my ears from the air sucking in the windows behind me! If your stove is outside air adaptable and you can install it, ABSOLUTELY start there. All combustion air is outside air anyway so you should try to control how it comes into the house to get to the stove.

If you’re choosing a gas stove this winter, go with a direct-vent model. They have outside air built into the system so they will be burning outside air and not creating a negative pressure inside the home.

If you have some extra buck-a-roos laying around (does anyone have that these days?) you can lay in some more insulation wherever you can – especially the attic.

Of course if you want to save some money heating even after you have done the obvious, you can dress a little warmer indoors then cut back a couple degrees on the thermostat. Once you acclimatize, you’ll be shedding that sweater. You’ll be amazed at the energy savings heating to 65 instead of 72 for a whole month. Give it a try.

If you’re heating with oil, OH MY! You want to do all you can. To heat with oil and have less environmental impact, you can get bio-heat from our friends at Blue Ridge Biofuels. Bio-Heat is to your furnace what Bio Diesel is to your car; ECO-FRIENDLY.

Hey, if you have some good winterizing tips add your comments to this article and share. Thanks! -Jack