Insulating old windows the cheap way?

tommy21

Hey folks, with another cold winter upon us I come here seeking your advice! We live in an ancient 3 storey house. About 6-7 years ago we were able to replace a handful of windows (mainly in bedrooms) with decent windows, but the majority in the house consist if the old wooden sash types ones. I can literally feel the cool air slowly filtering in from them on a cold day. How can I cheaply insulate them from the inside (most are too high up to reach from outside) to make some sort of a difference. We are not too concerned about aesthetics as our house is a mixture of all sorts anyway and of the 8 windows to be done, only 2 are ever opened (or indeed can be - I'm painting a real wreck of a house lol), so I am considering doing what a friend said and getting silicone and using a gun to apply at around window edges where the frame meets the glass.

Is this feasible? Can anyone suggest another cheap and easy way to insulate them? My thanks in advance!

yoshytoshy

Personally ,I'd go for heavy curtains and also try and seal any openings with decorators filler or something similar.

MarcusFenix

+1
I live in an ancient house in the country and only for me convective heater last year id have frozen. Anyway aside from gaps etc. which are straight forward enough to seal. The problem is the large surface area of the freezing cold glass cooling loads of air, so ya the heavy curtains is a must!

tommy21

MarcusFenix wrote: »

+1
I live in an ancient house in the country and only for me convective heater last year id have frozen. Anyway aside from gaps etc. which are straight forward enough to seal. The problem is the large surface area of the freezing cold glass cooling loads of air, so ya the heavy curtains is a must!

What did you use to seal the gaps? Yeah we have curtains and indeed shutters (though these can't be closed fully on most of them due to those little boxes on each window linked to the alarm system that detect tremors and banging etc) - curtains I'll admit are not that heavy.

tommy21

yoshytoshy wrote: »

Personally ,I'd go for heavy curtains and also try and seal any openings with decorators filler or something similar.

Forgive my ignorance but what is decorators filler?

yoshytoshy

tommy21 wrote: »

Forgive my ignorance but what is decorators filler?

Pollyfilla stuff ,the reason I say use filler is because you can paint over it when the time comes. Silicone looks crap on wood and doesn't take paint well.

MarcusFenix

tommy21 wrote: »

What did you use to seal the gaps? Yeah we have curtains and indeed shutters (though these can't be closed fully on most of them due to those little boxes on each window linked to the alarm system that detect tremors and banging etc) - curtains I'll admit are not that heavy.

Well as said above, polyfilla works a treat, sometimes though you might want something a bit more crude/flexible, in which case expanding foam/gap filler is your best friend, seriously helps with drafts etc. The curtains should look be the right heavy velvetty kind, you know the ones? They usually smell.

kramer1

i know a canadian guy who reckons you should get clear plastic and tape it to the inside of the frame, i have no idea if this works but he swears byi, does it every winter to his old windows