A poorly insulated house is a nightmare in winter. We are cold at home and we always have the feeling that the house is not comfortable. The lack of thermal insulation also increases the energy bill by 30% on average! But in the dead of winter, this is really not the right time to embark on major work on the openings or the roof. To fight against the feeling of cold at home and save money, there are easy, fast and inexpensive insulation solutions. Here’s how to insulate without spending too much to get warmer immediately.
Insulate Your Attic For 1 €: Cheap And Fast Insulation
The roof is up to 30% of the heat loss of a house! This is obviously where to start the overall energy renovation. Thanks to devices designed to encourage the energy transition, it is now possible to insulate your lost roof space for just € 1.
If you make a request and fulfill the conditions of allocation, you can have the insulation work done on your attic and only pay a symbolic euro. Professionals will then come and blow a nice thickness of insulation in your attic. A fast, clean site with no impact on your daily life.
And if you are not eligible for the devices, Leroy Merlin offers insulation of lost roof space at € 6 per m² without resource conditions.
If you want to do the work yourself, you can unroll rolls of insulating wool on the floor on the attic floor. This does not really require technical skills and the cost remains reasonable. As for the duration of the work, it depends of course on the surface to be covered but should not exceed a few days.
Flushing Drafts: Plugging Holes In The Structure
Defect in the structure, accident, deterioration due to time or humidity can transform the house into Swiss cheese. Simple and quick insulation work can solve the problem. A wooden board and a few nails or a plastic fragment and a little glue to cover the hole and the drafts disappear.
Adding sealant or foam in places like cracks can also stop drafts. If a hole gives you access to the space between the wall and the plasterboard, take the opportunity to slip polystyrene or insulating wool into the hole, it will always be a good thing until complete insulation of the walls of the House.
In the case of an open fireplace, remember to plug the flue when the chimney is not working to prevent heat loss again. Likewise, with your stove, you can seal the flue to prevent heat leakage when the stove is not in use.
Humidity is sometimes responsible for the cold sensations in a house. A few good gestures can change everything such as daily ventilation or the installation of a dehumidifier adapted to the surface of the room.
Hunt For Drafts: Better Insulate The Front Door
Insulating your home means avoiding that your home looks like a colander. The holes in the structure, even small, allow air to pass and the heat escapes in a few minutes. These are the famous thermal bridges. To avoid them, there are many solutions that are very easy to implement.
If the front door and frame are not properly adjusted, drafts can cool the whole house. Without redoing all the framing or changing the door, protections can be placed all around the door to isolate the entrance.
Of rollers with fasteners or adhesive used to isolate the door. They are installed at the bottom of the door but also over its entire length if the interstices allow air to pass. Textile door bottom, with Velcro, is also very effective. You can also redo your front door seals.
Hunt For Drafts: Well-Sealed Windows
If poorly insulated, windows, like the door, create large drafts. The principle of insulation for caulking your windows is the same as for the door, but there are some variants with metal or PVC supports to fix well to the window frame.
Are the window seals too worn? A simple replacement and your windows regain good insulation.
And if the masonry is lacking, expansive foam and that’s it! If you have chosen a roof dome, you will also have to think about insulating it.
Install Thermal Curtains: Your Insulated Openings On Demand
Not always efficient in terms of insulation, windows and bay windows sometimes create obvious heat loss (up to 15% of heat loss). But this is not the ideal time to replace them: in the middle of winter, you do not leave your house open to the four winds!
To keep the heat, you can protect its glass surfaces with thermal curtains. Thicker and cut in an insulating material, thermal curtains save a few additional degrees in the room. They can be installed as close to windows as French windows or windows, and even serve as a separation between the often cool entrance and the other rooms for example.
The thermal insulating curtains are also blackout. They are perfect at night to avoid being seen or in the morning to sleep late even when the sun is up.
Place Carpets Or Rugs On The Floor: Insulation And Living Comfort
Better than tiling, wooden parquet or even vinyl flooring, the carpet offers good thermal insulation on the floor and keeps the heat in the house. It is ideal in living rooms such as bedrooms or living rooms. You may even want to walk barefoot to enjoy its sweetness?
And if you do not want to do the replacement work to change your floor, it is always possible to place carpets on the floor, just for the winter.
The good news is that the accumulation of overlapping rugs in a bohemian spirit is in tune with the times. Most? Sound insulation is also reinforced.
Close The Shutters At Night: Or How To Insulate In The Blink Of An Eye
Insulating your house well also involves simple actions. To keep a maximum of heat when the night falls with the temperatures, it is enough to close its shutters. Whether automatic roller shutters or more traditional wooden shutters, closing them will further insulate the window.
Quick and without cost, this gesture keeps your house warm during the night and saves all your rooms several degrees during the night.
Also, consider adding insulation kits for roller shutter boxes (or insulating plates in the box), which precisely prevent losses at this specific location.
Insulate Walls Without Breaking Everything And In One Day: Insulating Paint Or Cork
After the roof, the walls are a great source of heat loss. But the overall insulation work deserves to be considered and is done more during the hot season. In the meantime, you can fall back on solutions that are certainly less effective but which nevertheless bring a more immediate.
- The insulating paint poses as a classical painting and creates a kind of barrier cold out on your walls. A brush, a little elbow grease and voila! The roll cork is also a good option.
- It is both insulating and decorative and its low thickness allows it to be installed almost anywhere. It is enough to stick it on the walls giving on the outside to better insulate his room.
Place Aluminum Foil Behind The Radiator: Insulated And Heated Walls
Insulating its walls and making them radiate heat rather than absorbing it is easy and it is especially very interesting in old dwellings when the walls are not insulated. Between your radiators and your wall, just insert an aluminum foil.
Better insulated, the walls will redistribute the heat throughout the room instead of mainly heating the wall and the outside. Heating thus becomes more efficient and more pleasant.
No need to do work, this insulation tip is quick to implement and does not cost much.
Among the important things for the efficiency of your heating, it is also judicious to take care to clear the surroundings of your radiator to let the heat circulate. Also, remember to dust your electric radiators to ensure their proper functioning.
Insulate The Garage Too: The Door Deserves Your Full Attention
The garage is a space halfway between the inside and the outside and the room glued to the garage can easily be cooler than the other rooms in the house.
To minimize this effect, garage door insulation kits exist.
These are rolls of insulation that are cut and glued directly to the inside of the garage door.
In a few hours, for a few tens of euros and without special skills, you will be able to insulate your garage.
Engaging In Energy Renovation At Home: Update On Aid
Beyond these emergency solutions, a global energy renovation is a profitable investment. If the budget gets stuck, know that there are many aids to help you carry out your energy renovation work:
- Energy transition tax credit (ISCED),
- Eco-loan at zero rates (ECO-PTZ),
- Reduced VAT,
- Energy voucher,
- ANAH help.
Each aid has its own eligibility conditions and it is better to find out about the aid in progress at the time you start. Most of the aid is conditioned by the intervention of an RGE craftsman (Recognized Guarantor of the Environment).
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