My first house was built in the 30's and still had single pane windows when I moved in. New energy star double pain windows would have been great to install right when I moved in, but I didn't have the money. Winter was approaching and I needed a way to minimize heat loss until I could invest in new windows. The solution was to shrink wrap our windows! This is a very easy and cheap way to insulate your single pane windows. Below is a list of supplies and the steps needed to insulate your single pain windows on a budget.
Supplies you will need
- Shrink wrap (insulating plastic)
- double sided tape (any type will do, just make sure the adhesive isn't too strong, we want the tape to come off easier later)
- blow dryer
Preperation work
First thing is to make sure your storm windows are closed. It would be silly to go to all the effort of plastic wrapping your windows if you were losing heat from unclosed storm windows. Once you have verified all your storm windows are closed, make sure to clean the window frame where you will be applying doubled sided tape. This will ensure your tape sticks nicely to the window frame. You can use soap, water and an old rag or acohol pads for this step. Next peal off one side of the double sided tape and run some around the window frame.
Leave the top backing on the tape until you are ready to put on the plastic shrink wrap material. When you are ready, unroll the plastic wrap material and apply to the tape. You do NOT have to make the plastic wrap super taught when pressing on the adhesive tape, since you will get rid of the plastic wrinkles in the next step. Lastly, use your blow dryer to shrink the plastic wrap, getting rid of all wrinkles. Thats it! you are done insulating your single pane windows.
There are tons of kits online you can purchase that has everything you need but the hair dryer.
Here is a link to one such kit --> Window Insulation Kits