With temperatures dropping and the cost of heating as it is I am intending to go round the house and add insulation/ draught excluders etc as well as adding a layer of the ” window film ” type secondary glazing (if you could call it that) . Yes I know it looks awful but funds necessitate I minimise heat loss .
If anyone has already done this and can recommend any particular brand etc or one’s to avoid it would be appreciated . A more permanent solution is not viable as the property is rented . Thanks ..Bill

I’m sure we used cling film as students. Obviously means your house has less ventilation and gets damper, which is harder to heat than a drier ventilated house…

Wickes sell it and claim “Draught-proofing around windows and doors could save you around £20 per year”.
Their film is £7.50 for 6sq m, so the sums don’t work for me.
Adhesive tape could pull dodgy paint off the window frames in the spring, which you’ll have to repaint??
Seal any gaps around frames, adjust opening panes, add an internal letter flap to reduce draughts and invest in blankets and a fleece 🙂

We used it when we first moved in to our current house that still had the original windows and wood frames. Single glazed and slightly rotting frames. The secondary glazing did stop all the condensation occurring in the mornings. Dont think I noticed any difference in terms of heat retention.

I have used polycarbonate sheets velcroed to window frames as a crude form or secondary glazing. It worked well. No idea how much money it saved but it made the room warmer and much less draughty

If you have knackered draughty windows then why not?

Yes. It cuts the draughts as you can see it billowing if not shrunk enough and you’ve committed to doing the outer frame so that you can’t open the window. Reduces condensation too but try and fit when all is dry. The tape will probably take some paint when you remove it.

The point made earlier about ventilation is worth listening to. It’s counterintuitive, but permanently sealing window openings may actually cost you money by making it harder to heat the moist air in your home, or cause other problems like black mould in unventilated areas.

Obviously, deal with full-on draughts as well as you can with excluders etc.

Secondary curtains may work better. Get some cheap, heavy fabric and cut to shape for key windows, then use velcro fastenings to fix to the frame, which means you can take it off during the day to air the house.

Some great advice .. much appreciated ..thanks.

You can use a dehumidifier to keep the place dry – it will also feel less cold as dry air conducts heat less well.

You can use a dehumidifier

You need to do the calcs on buying/running one of these versus the cost (allowing draughts) of not making the place damp in the first place.

Ive always lived in old buildings and despite massive draughtproofing never seen this mythical damp appear. My guess is you have to get close to passivhaus standards for it to happen and old buildings you will never get close.

My rental flat is so well insulated that my tenant paid £30 a month for gas last winter. No damp or condensation bar the cheap shower rail which rusted

Get the polycarbonate sheets, much better than film.

I’m thinking of doing it with polycarbonate sheets as in this video.
They use magnetic tape which seems a good solution.

+1 to the polycarbonate + magnetic strips.

Tricky to do neatly though and you’ll need a good behind-the-sofa type space to store them when not in use.

The made-to-measure polycarbonate ones with magnetic strips look quite neat but are awesomely expensive!

Also would be very hard to fit to my old sashes with sticky out beady bits and handles poking out. Bah.

I had polycarbonate sheets cut to size locally. Not expensive. Sign makers iirc.

You can build up the surrounds with timber to get clearnce if needed

I have done similar to the window on our stairs. It’s a arch shaped window, I used a 10mm sheet of acrylic. Without it you can feel the cold as you walk past.
Check prices, acrylic is cheaper than Polycarbonate, PETG also worth asking about.

You need to do the calcs on buying/running one of these versus the cost (allowing draughts) of not making the place damp in the first place.

Condensing types work out cheaper than electric heating as you’re recovering all the energy in the water vapour. Dessicant types won’t do so well as they work by ejecting warm wet air. Won’t make it as cheap as gas on it’s own but might lower the energy required to heat it once dry. Especially as it would also reduce heat lost by moisture condensing onto windows or having to evaporate off walls (or drying clothes).

ve always lived in old buildings and despite massive draughtproofing never seen this mythical damp appear.

Because they’re old buildings. They’re inherently porous unless you hermetically seal them with modern materials.

I used it in a 16th-century cottage with leaky single-glazed windows. It worked very well for keeping heat in and stopping draughts and didn’t look too bad provided you gave it a quick blast with a heat gun on low every week.

Disadvantages? The double-sided tape is insanely sticky. If you forget to take it off come spring, it’ll be there forever, and you’ll probably need to repaint the areas where it’s peeled paint off. It’s very fragile, so a cat or dog sticking their noses in it to look out of the window will damage it. When it’s really windy, it bows in and out as the air pressure changes.

Tricky to do neatly though and you’ll need a good behind-the-sofa type space to store them when not in use.

Under the bed with the monsters 🤘