In article 3kddj.9837$NL5.5822@trnddc05,
"Twayne" wrote:
I think I'd just opt to put this money toward new windows come spring
and fix the problem right. No one can 'see' the situation from here and
what the current installation looks like, but it seems likely to be
drafty windows.

I don't detect any drafts near the windows (but haven't done a test with
smoke yet--I just can't feel any draft).

It's not clear there is a problem. I would just like my electric bill
to be lower. :-) My house is about 2.5 times the size my apartment was,
so I expected utilities to cost more, but there is more to that "more"
than I was hoping for. (Although I probably underestimated, because I
did not take into account the fact that the apartment was a middle floor
apartment, so had heated rooms above and below it, and on three sides,
providing both heat and insulation).

The windows are colder than the walls, which is why I'm thinking they
could be improved. For example, in one of the living room walls, there
is a big window. It has two panes of glass. The wall right now is 70F
(according to a non-contact IR thermometer).

The living room side of the inner pane of glass of the window in that
wall is 60F. That window does not open, so I don't know what the inside
side of the outer pane is.

On the other outside living room wall, the wall is 71F. The living room
side of the window is 62F. That window DOES open, and opening the inner
pane, and measuring the inside side of the storm window, I get 53F.

It's about 33F outside.

I don't remember enough from my thermodynamics class 30 years ago to
know what the heck this means, but having two big areas of 60F on the
wall of a room that I want to have at 70F seems like something that I
might want to do something about--and if I can do it with a cheap kludge
rather than expensive new windows, I'm all for it! :-)

(I'll eventually get new windows, but even if I wanted to do that now,
I'd still go for a cheap kludge first, just to get some data on how much
the windows are affecting my heating bill. That would give me some data
to use to figure out how much better windows would be worth).


--
--Tim Smith