It’s time to weatherize

While my daughters and I pulled out the Christmas decorations today (I know, I know. We can’t help ourselves), my husband worked on weatherizing our house for winter.

Today’s task list included adding foam insulation behind electrical outlets and light switch covers, lining the openings of doors with a fresh batch of foam weather stripping and adding draft stoppers to the bottoms of some of our exterior doors. Unfortunately that last project didn’t go so well (we couldn’t close our doors, which is sort of the opposite of energy efficiency), so I’m going to sew up some draft snakes to block the cold air instead.

Another thing we do this time of year is to replace some of our regular curtains with wool blankets.

Spokane green architect Kelly Lerner ‘s book Natural Remodeling for the Not-So-Green House is chock full of tips for making homes more energy efficient. And Re-nest.com offers some quick tips for weatherization .

While sealing up cracks and keeping out drafts can save you some dough in the long term (about $350 per year, on average), sometimes the cost of weatherization products prohibits homeowners from getting the work done.

Help is available, though. Some homeowners and renters qualify for a federal assistance program that covers the cost of weatherization products and labor. In Spokane, the program is administered by Spokane Neighborhood Action Programs (SNAP), which has information on its site about who qualifies .

What do you do to make your house more energy efficient?