weatherization

Wow, I am having a hard time getting used to being warm in my house!

I spent most of the winter freezing my butt off because I live in an old house without insulation. Last fall I called the electric company to inquire about how to save money on my electric bill. I had just paid off the winter bill which was really high and hoped they would have some advice on how to lower the cost. Lo and behold they told me that they had a weatherization program that I might qualify for, even though I was a renter, for free!

So I made an appointment for them to come out and look at my house and see what they could do. This happened around Thanksgiving. It took three hours to run all the test to see what the house needed to make it more efficient at retaining heat. I have base board heaters in my bedroom, dinning room and front room. My bathroom as a little in the wall electric heater. They pretty much told me all my heat was going out the walls and that they could indeed weatherize the house and make it better.

In the meantime they gave me little pamplets with ideas on how to keep in what heat I was using until they could weatherize. One of the ideas was to put up curtains to close off parts of the house I didn't use very much. So I put up two curtains that cut off the drafts from the back part of the house. Which meant that when I went into the kitchen and bathroom it was like walking into a refrigerator. But I thought it was worth the chill as it meant that if I hung out in the front part of the house I would stay fairly warm. So I would run into the bathroom and do my business and run back into the living room where it was warm. yes I have a heater in the bathroom but didn't want to live it running 24/7 when most of my trips there were short and brief. I did turn it on for showers or baths. The kitchen was cold but I could cook up my meals and then take them into the dinning room to eat and the stove would heat up the kitchen and it wasn't too bad.

They finally came out to do the work on the house this last week. Two days of work and now I am so warm I have to turn down my heat. I haven't really use the curtains as the house is staying so warm that I don't have too. They added a really cool convection heater to a back bedroom so when it is in use I have heat. Wow I can't believe the difference.

The smell from all the sealants is pretty strong though and I will be glad when it dissipates. My bedroom window has been open for the last few nights as I couldn't bear to sleep in the smell. But it is slowly disappearing. Even with the window open tho the room stays fairly decent. A big change! I may even have to take off some of the blankets on my bed so I can sleep without being too warm!!! Who knew!

Thanks City of Seattle, what a great program!