I live in a nice apartment. The living room, sun room, and kitchen is in an open area design. There are tall, wide windows in the sun room and two patio doors that lead to a deck (which I never use). One door is located in the sun room and the other is in the bedroom. I love the openness, but there is one problem with this setup, especially during the winter. You guessed it! Cold, drafty air.
A few days ago, we experienced our first cold weather of the season. It was so cold, I had to pull out the blankets and turn on the heat. The apartment stayed warm while the heat was on but soon as it was off, I could feel cold air coming from the windows and doors in my sun room and bedroom. As I fretted about buying a room heater, again, a thought crossed my mind! There was something I'd stored in my closet that might help cut down on the air drafts - my son's camping pad!
Several years ago, when my son was a Boy Scout, his troop would go on frequent camping trips. One piece of equipment he needed was “the camping pad”. It's placed under a sleeping bag for insulation and protection from moisture (notice I didn't say “comfort”). So, we purchased an inexpensive blue camping pad - 20 inches wide, 72 inches long, and 5 inches thick. Since the material is a durable “closed cell dense foam”, I thought it might be a pretty good insulator for my drafty patio doors and windows. Boy, was I ever right!! The foam pad is easy to measure and cut. It was flexible enough to press into the gaps of my doors (at the bottom) and windows that seep cold air. After, insulating (took less that 30 minutes), my apartment was warm and toasty (I bought a ceramic heater, anyway) and the air drafts were considerably reduced.
One of the doors that leads to the patio. I pressed the foam under the door edge to fill in the gap.
This is one of the strips I cut, from the blue foam, to fill in the gaps between my window and window sills.
The cut narrow strips were pressed into my window gaps. This cut down considerably on seeping air.
(The blue camping pad comes rolled and can easily be straightened by laying something on it (like a book). It is made by Ozark Trails and I found it at Walmart for less than $6.00. However, I'm sure a dense foam pad can be found elsewhere in a variety of sizes.
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More information on saving energy: http://www.energystar.gov/
