New Must

As we head into the Fall, Winter and Spring months I am searching for ways to weatherize the home. I bought a programmable thermostat last winter (which led to a week or two with only partial heat due to only one of the breakers being on after install) because I thought that the reading would be more accurate and the idea of being able to program the house-weather based on our work and sleeping patterns appealed to me. I cheaped out on the thermostat and only got the 1-program model rather than one that allows you to program at least 2, 1 for weekdays and the other for the weekends, so we have been manually controlling/adjusting the heat when we are home during the day.


Image from Amazon.com

Now without employment, I have re-set the thermostat so that I do not need to bundle up too much between the hours of 9 and 5, and with few distractions throughout the day have noticed that our heat pops on and off quite regularly. When the heat turned off yesterday I looked at the thermostat because it still felt pretty cold to me, and to my amazement the reading said 77º! After actually looking at the set up, the heat vent relative to the placement of the thermostat (not my choice, it's where the old one was), I noticed that the former blows directly onto the later. This is totally screwing up the heat! Immediately the vent covers my grandmother had when I was younger (and perhaps now, I don't remember) sprang to mind. After some keyword searching on google (vent covers, register covers, vent accessories) I finally found a page that put me on to the right turn of phrase, Air Deflector!


Image from Amazon.com

These things should direct the air into the room and away from the thermostat. I promptly ordered 2 (though I only need one, I just want to have a back up in case the product is not as sturdy as advertised) and am anxiously awaiting delivery. In the meantime, one of my housemates has a rigged up a very "paper-taped-to-the-floor" solution.



This seems to be having some effect, but the tape keeps unsticking from the floor (perhaps a consequence of being heated?) and the paper falls over regularly. Until the more permanent solution shows up are keeping the tape roll close at hand and making fixes as needed.

I have a few more ideas for weatherizing the house this winter: making temporary storm windows, using some heavy velvet I have to sew curtains for the dining room windows, figuring out what As Seen on TV product will best block the draft coming under the exterior doors...


Image from AsSeenOnTV.com

With the curtains in particular, I am paralyzed by the fear that I will just make a crazy mess of it and waste the fabric that I have, but, I guess if I have it and am not using it for anything, it's a bigger waste than if I try. We'll see how that goes.