Easy, cheap insulation ideas?

Fall is coming, and it already feels like it's going to be a brutal winter here!

I'm still very new to living in a house and in a climate that is this cold! I have limited skills, confidence, and budget, but would like to make my house a bit more insulated. Right now it gets VERY hot in the summer, and just as cold in the winter--it's a timberframe house about 30 years old, so there is insulation in the walls and windows are doubleglazed, but it doesn't feel like it some days!

There's a crawlspace but I can't really access it to do anything there (and I'm not sure if I'm ready to even try messing around up there). The house is on oil heat with tanks in the basement and it just tears through heating oil each year. We have woodburning fireplaces but last winter I swear using them made the house colder--felt like all of the heat just went up the flues and made it colder.

Do you guys have any tips or hacks for insulation? Anything I should do now before the cold hits? I know that longterm a rocket mass heater or having an energy audit would be good, but right now those kinds of projects aren't in the budget or my scope of skills (I'm seriously struggling right now to figure out how to get some simple shelves up on the wall without them looking like crap!)

Late last winter I put honeycomb blackout blinds on almost all of the windows--they kind of trap a layer of air in them and that seemed to help a bit. I also added a couple of rugs, because we have old pine floors--not sure if that really did much.

Any other hacks or projects I could try to take on before full winter hits? I'd love any hacks or tips anyone has--does hanging pictures or putting bookcases on outside walls help? Are rugs a worthwhile investment? Anything I should check for or repair in the house (dummy proof projects appreciated!) I saw someone who piled bales of hay next to their house foundation, which sounds good, but wouldn't it potentially cause rot to the siding or moisture accumulation or something?

Appreciate any ideas or tips!

Hi Laurie,
I also live in a cold climate, and I have lived in old timber frame farm houses, so I understand your frustration.

For the immediate season, here are few ideas, in no particular order.
- Rugs, yes they can keep your feet warmer.
- Heat only what you need to heat. Try closing off part of your house, hang blankets for dividers if you do not have doors.
- Wear more clothes, I know it sounds cliche, but wearing a sweater and fuzzy socks might be the difference between being comfortable at a lower temp, saving heating costs
- It is very common here in the northeast to wrap the base of your house with plastic. Using strapping to hold it to the bottom of the siding, and then putting rocks, boards, etc on the bottom to hold it in place. This can be a big help keeping the airflow in your basement or crawlspace to a minimum, but can also cause problems with moisture, if left too long, or if your house is high moisture. This is uncommon in places where you run heat, but needs to be said.
- Strawbales around the base of your house. These have better insulation, while not holding moisture inside your basement/crawlspace but they also make excellent houses for mice and other things... so I tend not to use them. But they work as far as heat is concerned.
- moving blankets. I just tried this one last year. Someone was giving away moving blankets. I cut them in half an tacked them up around the house, like I have done with plastic in the past. It helped... more than plastic, and was practically free. The downside is that when I went to wash them in the spring, in order to store them and reuse them... the padding on the inside was falling out and we had to ditch them. Perhaps if they had been sewed up, or used whole, it would work for more than one winter.
- Snow - once you get snow, pile it up around the outside of the base of your house, and it will also help with insulation.
- Curtains - heavy curtains that are open during the day to allow sunlight in, and then closed at night to help keep warmth in.

When you get to a time when you can work on the insulation of the house, I highly recommend something that will "breath", like mineral wool, sheep wool batts, plant based, etc. You do not have to do it all at once. I would focus on the worst places first. Where is there no insulation? (crawlspace, I'm looking at you). The north side gets the least sun. Or perhaps the side of the house where the prevailing winds come in.

Also there is a thread here about adding something easy to your windows to help.

https://permies.com/t/237768/Waterfalls-Odd-window-insulation-working

In the past I have covered the window with thick towels which really helped.

Making roman shades is also a good suggestion:

https://permies.com/t/62681/journey-find-winter-curtains

https://permies.com/t/234249/Seasonal-Insulation-Windows

https://permies.com/t/237768/Waterfalls-Odd-window-insulation-working

https://permies.com/t/4196/Homemade-cost-insulated-roll-shades

We also use the shrink wrap window film:

Hi;
In a previous house I used 'interior storm windows' from 1 x 2" pine to make frames to fit into window wells.
I did not do any fancy jointing, just nailed the ends of the pine together to make a rectangle; I might have cut the ends on a 45 angle and nailed through the joint.
I put weather stripping around the perimeter of the frames.
I used double side tape 2 layers of shrink plastic to make a double-wall covering over the frames, separated by ~ 1" air space.
Then I pushed the frames into the window wells.
They held up for years of reuse, and if the plastic rips it can be taped or replaced.
It made a big difference, even though the windows were in good shape.
Total cost was low;  it was a bit easier b/c I had multiple windows of the same size.
I also had crafty teenagers at the time, which helped.

Bags of leaves around the foundation - like bales of straw but free and can use them on garden in the spring. We once knew someone in Wisconsin who insulated a cold dairy barn with many layers of flattened cardboard boxes stapled onto the walls (there was hay in the loft so the top was already insulated). With the cows inside it felt cozy.  Bubblewrap can be applied to windows by misting the glass with water, then press the bubblewrap's smooth side against the glass and it will stay in place until you peel it off in the spring, no tape or adhesives needed.  And yes, you should try to insulate a smaller space in the structure and concentrate the heat there rather than trying to keep the whole space warm. Wear lots of layers of wool, silk, or other animal fibers. Fingerless gloves and hats are useful indoors as well as out.

= Pelmets over windows to prevent air circulation behind the curtains.
  When that happens the windows draw heat out.
- insulate the floors 17 % of heat goes there
- improve ceiling insulation
- block drafts, doors, windows, skirting board, even floor boards

I wear a winter jacket almost constantly in the winter months, inside or out. Sometimes snowpants too. Your tolerance for bulky clothing may vary from mine. A well meaning person has criticized me for this habit. But, I am not the one complaining how cold it is inside!

Laurie Fen wrote: We have woodburning fireplaces but last winter I swear using them made the house colder--felt like all of the heat just went up the flues and made it colder.

I've seen plenty of info that suggests that's exactly what happens. Insulation is one direction, but what you're also likely short on is thermal mass. If you can find a way to heat up a mass, it will then give off that heat slowly over time. This is one part of why a Rocket Mass Heater is so effective. You can't build that, but upcycle a stack of bricks or rocks in a spot that gets the winter sun, and it may help. Hot water bottles may also help, as water has a lot of mass also.

Does the fireplace have a damper?  And if so, do you close it when not in use?

Heat the person with micro-heaters and save 90% off the heating bill:

https://permies.com/t/131936/cut-electric-heat-bill-microheaters

Do you have access to the attic space?  This is often the easiest place to add insulation, and it can be just about anything that traps air.  I'm right now in the process of putting just about anything up there...foam mattresses, styrofoam packing bits, bubble wrap and other clean plastic crumbled up, and cardboard. Yes it's all a rodent habitat but I've seen them nesting in pure fiberglass fluff too, so I just keep mousetraps set.
    My house also has a crawl space, and it has mold and damp issues.  Research has told me that attaching insulation directly to the wood under there will only make that problem worse.  The only way to progress is to add the insulation to the foundation walls, preferably on the outside....this means digging a trench, etc. which is beyond my schedule these days. So we're doing rugs!
     you've discovered the main advantage of wood stoves over fireplaces in heating efficiency.  Wood stoves have better air control.  One thing that would help would be to contrive a cold/outside air intake for the burn box of the fireplace...perhaps a hole through the floor?  This might mean chipping or drilling through brick or cement, but it's worth considering. Then you can put glass doors in front of the fireplace and burn it as an enclosed chamber, like a wood stove.  The goal is to heat up the thermal mass of the fireplace itself, which will then radiate warmth into the space.  The better option, though pricey, is to add a stove that sits out in front of the fireplace, or even partly inside of it, that vents up the same chimney, or else somewhere else in the house.  The issue to remember here is that for many people, firewood is nearly free, while other fuels aren't.  Even an inefficient wood burning system is often better on the budget than the alternatives.

I live just west of the Catskills in a 200+ year-old farmhouse.  My father updated much of the insulation in the late 1960's.  That seems to be holding well, but a couple of notes.  Yes, the fireplaces are an energy hog.  They have large flues and the air exchange will suck air in every tiny crack or around doors and windows and cool the home.  Suggestion:  While living in Denver, we had an old parsonage with a fireplace.  I walled off the throat of the fireplace and installed stovepipe up the chimney.  This adds a firewall to any leaky portions of an old flue and allows better control of air infiltration.  I used two flue dampers to allow better control of exhaust air, it seemed each time I did that, that the heat retained was well worth the extra management time expended.  A relatively simple method to improve the warm "feel" of a room is to line the walls with construction aluminum paper (aluminum foil if you feel flush).  The aluminum tends to reflect infrared energy from all heat sources including your body back to you.  Since the oil heater in that parsonage was a glutton, I installed a point hear source by hanging a heat lamp on a pulley over the most comfortable section of the couch where we could snuggle in comfort even with the rest of the room frigid by most measures.
Much of that tech was developed in an old and dilapidated trailer during our first winter on our own land. There were mornings when we saw thick frost on the outside wall along our hallway towards the stove.  That was not too far from our farmhouse, but in the colder valley over 40 years ago.  My parents were still alive and in the farmhouse at that time.  We had little money, but we made it through.  As an example of how cold the site was, I had to sprinkle the garden in August to protect it from hard frosts.  Occasionally, I had to bend the hose to allow ice chunks to push out.  If the old insulation was blown in, it may have settled.  Use a cheap remote thermometer to check the walls for differences in temperature.  If the top is cooler, consider setting up a ceiling fan of any type to push heat back down towards the shivering bodies.  That way the rising heat of the room will be recycled a bit before serving to heat the cold upper walls.  If you have access to inexpensive newspaper, harder to get now than years ago, make temporary inner wall chambers of cardboard and loosely wad up the paper sheets and place inside.  That will provide some additional insulation.  It is possible to place foam panels of virtually any type (preferably closed-cell) in windows at night.  Excellent privacy screen and it is amazing how well it works to reduce drafts.  In one Denver home, we had metal frame windows and placing foam (recycled from maintaining a filled freezer from NY)in the window frame literally stopped a draft I had assumed was an invisible hole.  
Never fear to try any idea, no matter how hair-brained it may seem at first. That is how you learn what works and what does not.    

Alder,

Research has told me that attaching insulation directly to the wood under there will only make that problem worse.  

Can you give more details of this statement.
It seems counter to my experience.
If the crawl space is damp because of water inflow or seepage, surely insulating the floor and creating an air flow in the crawl space would fix the moisture issue?