Chill chasers

I made these chill chasers for the dining room windows in our old house (this pic is of the new house, which is why they're a bit short for the window).  The old house had windows which were quite drafty in winter, especially along the base of the windows. The chill chasers are made with old socks and rags.  Take the foot off each sock and stitch the ends of several together so they make a tube of wool, then simply stuff the wool tube with old t-shirts or other fabric scraps destined for the thrift store or garbage.  They're really quite ingenious, and they work wonderfully.

I haven't lived in enough houses to really say what is and is not normal regarding draftiness; at the time we built our first house I figured it was normal to feel some air moving into the house from the base of each window and where the top window meets the bottom one at the latch.  But maybe it was not.

The problem is, drafty homes are not only physically uncomfortable in winter, they are also expensive to heat.  At our old house you could crank the central heating up to toasty 78 degrees and still catch a chill if you were sitting next to one of those aforementioned, metal-framed windows.  The dining room and living rooms never seemed warm enough. Yet it was a newer house, built in 2005, so I always figured those windows were about as state-of-the-art efficient as you could get.  They were double-paned, after all. So we lived with the drafts, and I designed these chill chasers to block some of the cold air which entered where the base of the window met the bottom of the frame.  One thing is for sure: today's newer homes have more windows than ever, so it's extremely important they seal up fairly tight.

When we moved to this house, I brought our chill chasers along, fully expecting to use them again in winter.  But, happily for us, these windows are different -- their frames and edges are made of vinyl, which seems to be about 100 percent more energy efficient in terms of sealing up properly when closed. Yet this house was also built in 2005, just like our old one, which just goes to show that it's quality of construction is everything....a new house is not necessarily an energy efficient one.  It all depends on how it was built, and maybe who built it as well.

I must say, it's nice to sit in our dining room and not feel a cold draft coming from the windows.  Makes   us a lot more likely to linger in there and enjoy a second glass of wine or some dessert.