Energy Saver: Plastic Window Insulation

Our current home is drafty.  From what I've heard, most trailers are.  We don't have a central heater or anything, so we're kind of reliant on electric heaters.  From what we've seen, everyone pretty much is.  I suppose in some ways we're doing better for the environment because our energy provider uses 100% green energy, but we'd still like to conserve a bit more.  There's no point in taking up resources we don't need, even if it is green energy.

To combat the draft, I remembered my aunt using some plastic window insulation stuff on her windows.  I don't know if she still bothers with it now since she owns her own home and may have some pretty decent windows, but I'd still remembered it.  When our houses here in Texas have been so incredibly drafty I'd often thought about looking it up, but I never did.  It never got cold enough to make a difference in the house, so I figured a bit of a cool draft wouldn't hurt anyone.

Things changed when we moved into this little trailer.  We originally ordered two heaters for our house. Our Lasko heater was just fine. It really cooks even the largest room in our house. The Lasko Stanley wasn't as helpful. It arrived with a broken fan so we had to replace it (which wonderfully came pretty quick!)  Thankfully that one cooks too, so we've got the advantage of keeping warm.  Unfortunately, the drafts can make things challenging.  The heaters have been constantly running since we got them to keep the place a tolerable temperature.  In hopes of saving electricity, we decided to look into that plastic stuff.

We decided on the Duck Brand Window Insulation Kit.  It was inexpensive and functional.  I was a little worried about using such a thin plastic with kids in the house, but I thought it would be worth a shot.  We ordered enough kits to deal with all our windows and hoped for the best.

When the kits arrived we went to work.  We started in the kid's room.  The double sided tape was a great idea, but we worried since there was supposed to be an inch left on each edge around the perimeter of the window.  However, the stuff was great.  Just insulating one window made a huge difference.  Given there are four windows in the kids' room, we could only imagine how great it would be when we got them all done!  We decided to put tape down on the outside edge of the windows as well.  The plastic was getting pulled up by the kids as we expected, so it wasn't going to be much help.  We also found that the littlest one likes to puncture it with pens, pencils, his fingers.  One of them pretty quickly got a pretty decent sized rip.  It's obviously not an ideal solution with kids and something sturdier would probably have been a better option, but they were inexpensive, so it's not like we wasted a lot of money.  That and repairing the one spot that needs repair isn't going to be that big of a deal.  There was some extra plastic from the edge so we're figuring we'll fashion a patch and that will be good enough.  They look pretty clear, so it's almost as though there's nothing over the window at all, or would look that way if we weren't going to need to patch the one.  I think this would be great for anyone who wants a subtle window insulation that's pretty clear.  Once you hit it with the hair dryer to "shrink wrap" it, it looks pretty sharp!

Next year we might start looking into more expensive solutions, like thermal curtains.  We'll have to save up for them since they are so expensive, but they keep in cool air in the summer and warm air in the winter, so they're a year-round benefit.  They should save us enough money to be worth it, and there's nothing like curtains to make a place feel more like home!  Combine that with these simple window kits and we should be able to minimize the use of our little electric heaters!  Now all we need is a place we can throw some solar panels up on the roof and we'll have incredible efficiency!  Of course, that's not really an option until we own our own place.

Simple things, like sweaters, warm blankets, slippers, and insulation can make a huge difference in energy usage through the winter months.  Common problems such as drafts aren't such a big deal when you've got an option to dress a little warmer.  Slippers keep feet from feeling the effects of drafts and from cold tile and wood floors.  Blankets can be pulled over a lap while sitting in front of the television or working with a project.  Sweaters can always be thrown on if there's a chill in the house.  As much as I prefer the ability to have my house so warm I can sit around in a short sleeved shirt and barefoot all winter, it's not practical unless you have the luxury of sitting by a fire all winter long or don't mind spending a fortune to heat your home.  It's better to dress like it's winter outside!

It may not seem like much to keep temperatures low in the winter, better insulate the house, and dress a little warmer, but these little things can make a huge impact on your energy bill.  Just remember, the more you have to work to heat your house, the more energy you expend.  This is both costly for your wallet, and the environment (unless you use 100% green energy like we're privileged to do...)

Twain and our Economy

I was listening to CraftLit today while I was working on some knitting.  I'm a bit behind on the current episodes, so I'm still stuck on A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.  I'm nearing the end of the book and have been loving it so far.  I just wish I had more time to sit down with the podcast, but carving an hour out of any day can be daunting with Marrok, Chesh, and the kids hovering over me.  I'm beginning to think I'm just not allowed a moment of peace and quiet unless I'm working on my book!

During the podcast Heather made an interesting observation on the chapters we would soon be hearing.  She observed that Twain would make a commentary on the state of the economy, something that's still true today.  She kind of wished everyone would be required to read these chapters.  I have to say, I'm inclined to agree.

In this book, Twain makes a really good point.  People talk a good deal about wages.  Minimum wage gets a lot of attention these days.  When it was $5.12 per hour, people thought it was incredibly low.  Now it's up to $7.25 per hour and rising.  A lot of people see this as a great thing.  Everyone on the low end makes more money, so we must be doing economically better, right?

Unfortunately not.  With the rise in minimum wage we've also seen a matching, possibly even exceeding rise in cost of living.  For example, when I got to Texas just over two years ago we were paying $2.50 for a gallon of gas and that seemed steep.  The gas cost skyrocketed up to nearly $4 per gallon the very next summer.  Granted, gas prices drop and rise in a crazy way, but that's how everything is.  The cost of living isn't as close to as low as it was back when minimum wage was $5.12 per hour.

I hate to say it, but what we're looking at when we talk about wages is the base wage.  We're not talking about purchasing power here.  We're not taking a look at how much you can buy with that money.  Sadly, the amount we can buy with our dollar is going down faster than the minimum wage is going up.  What does this mean?  Our economy is going to tank, not because minimum wage isn't high enough, but because the cost of living keeps on going up faster than our minimum wage.

It was proven time and time again that your average family cannot afford to live off of minimum wage.  It would take approximately three minimum wage jobs in any given area to cover the cost of expenses to maintain your average home and family with two kids.  This isn't even talking about excesses such as car payments and things like that.  That should be telling us something.

I've heard a lot of people blame the feminists.  If they didn't insist that women work we wouldn't need two incomes just to get by.  The problem isn't the feminists, it's our standard of living.  Our need to live in excess, create debt for ourselves, and live above our means has caused the need for two working parents in a family. If we could all learn to live within our means, not buy unneeded things, and make the most of our time, perhaps the face of our economy would change.  I know it's just food for thought at this point, but isn't that where everything starts?

So what am I going to do?  I know there's really nothing I can do about the minimum wage or the cost of living, but I can take a stand and make sure my dollars count.  Instead of buying expensive toys for my kids, I'm going to focus on affordable, as I have been.  I'm going to watch my personal spending and make sure my money is only going out to things I can actually condone and support.  I'm going to make sure the items my family has are quality, even if that means paying a bit more or doing a bit more work.  In the long run, it will be worth it.  If it outlives it's value, that's all that I care.

In the end, we're not really so much better than all these other countries out there.  For a little bit of a shocking reality check, take a look at this article, courtesy of Heather Ordover from CraftLit.  Go down the whole list.  Pay attention to both the prices, and how much food their family survives off of.  You might just be surprised at the degree to excess in which Americans live...