Last night was the first real freeze of the season. I knew it before I checked the thermometer because the hallway floor was cold enough to feel through my socks, and because Pepper had abandoned her bed by the back door and crept onto the rug in front of the living room heat vent. When a beagle relocates, there is a draft.
People who don't live here assume a South Carolina winter is nothing. Mostly it is mild: highs in the fifties and sixties, a handful of nights below freezing, maybe a dusting of sleet every few years. But our house is a 1958 brick ranch with original wood windows in some rooms and gaps in places nobody thought to seal in 1958. On those few cold nights, the heat pump runs and runs, and you feel the cost later.
The big fix came first
I should say up front that the most important work this year was not cheap and not something I did myself. Our utility's free home energy audit back in May found leaky ducts in the attic and insulation that had settled to almost nothing in places. We had the ducts sealed in July for $380, and two weeks ago a crew came out and topped up the attic insulation for $1,450. I watched them blow in the loose fill from the attic hatch and felt more satisfied than I expected to.
That was the expensive part. But the auditor also pointed out a list of smaller leaks around the living space, and those were things Ben and I could do over a couple of weekends in November. The insulation keeps heat in the house. These small fixes keep it from slipping out the edges.
The weekend list
| Fix | Where | Cost | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Door sweep | Kitchen door to the carport | $12 | 20 minutes |
| Foam weatherstripping | Front door and back porch door | $14 | 45 minutes |
| Rope caulk | Two old wood windows in Lila's room and the den | $8 | 30 minutes |
| Outlet gaskets | Every outlet and switch on exterior walls | $9 | 1 hour |
| Caulk | Gaps around the kitchen window frame and bathroom pipes | $7 | 1 hour |
| Attic hatch weatherstripping and a foam board on top | Hallway ceiling | $18 | 1 hour |
| Total | $68 | about 4.5 hours |
Finding the leaks
The auditor used a fancy fan and a thermal camera. At home, on a cold windy evening, we used a stick of incense. Ben held it near window edges, outlets, the baseboards and the attic hatch while I watched where the smoke bent. Lila followed us around with a notepad, writing "LEAK" in big letters whenever the smoke wavered. She found two we had missed, both on the north wall of her bedroom.
The surprising ones
The outlets on exterior walls were the biggest surprise. Take the cover off, and on a windy night you can feel cold air coming straight through. The little foam gaskets that go behind the cover plates cost about thirty cents each and take two minutes. Turn off the breaker if you're nervous; we did.
The attic hatch was the other one. It's just a thin painted board resting on a wood frame, and warm air was escaping right around it, straight into the attic we had just paid to insulate. A strip of foam weatherstripping around the frame and a piece of rigid foam glued to the top of the board fixed it.
What we didn't do
We didn't replace any windows. Several of ours are the original wood sashes, and while replacing them would make a difference, it would be a five-figure project and I love the old wavy glass. Instead, the rope caulk goes in the worst two each November and comes out in March. It's gray and putty-like and not beautiful, but nobody looks closely at window edges in December.
We also didn't touch the heat pump settings much. It's a 2016 unit and the auditor said it was in reasonable shape for its age. We keep the thermostat at 68 during the day and 64 overnight, with flannel sheets and a quilt on every bed.
Small comforts that help
- Rugs. Original hardwood floors are lovely and cold. A thrifted wool rug in the living room made more difference to comfort than the thermostat.
- Curtains closed at dusk. The blackout curtains we hung in the bedrooms for summer heat do double duty now.
- Ceiling fans on reverse, at the lowest speed, to push warm air down from the ceiling.
- A draft snake at the bottom of the den door, sewn from an old pair of Ben's jeans and stuffed with dried rice.
Will all this show up on the bill? I'll find out over the next couple of months, and I'll report back honestly either way. For now I can tell you this: tonight is supposed to drop to 29 again, and the hallway floor is not cold. Pepper is back in her own bed by the door. That's the best review I could ask for.
