- 56 minutes ago
Bubble wrap on windows sounds odd until you see why it works: it traps still air, cuts heat loss, and helps stop frost from forming on old single-pane glass. In this warm, practical home-saving lesson, Elias Yoder explains how a simple roll of packing wrap can act like a makeshift storm window for cold-weather insulation.
Drawing on memories of his grandmother, winter mornings in an old house, and the logic behind traditional storm sashes, he shows why one pane of glass leaks heat so easily and why air gaps matter so much. The video also covers where bubble wrap makes the most sense, how to clean and spray the glass, why the bubble side faces the window, and when it is better to use heavy curtains or leave south-facing windows open to winter sun.
Created for viewers interested in old house insulation, window winterizing, and low-cost home heating tips, this narration fits searches for bubble wrap windows, DIY storm window ideas, draft prevention, and affordable energy-saving tricks for cold weather. It is especially useful for homeowners, renters, and anyone looking for practical winter home maintenance advice and traditional Amish-style homesteading know-how.
Drawing on memories of his grandmother, winter mornings in an old house, and the logic behind traditional storm sashes, he shows why one pane of glass leaks heat so easily and why air gaps matter so much. The video also covers where bubble wrap makes the most sense, how to clean and spray the glass, why the bubble side faces the window, and when it is better to use heavy curtains or leave south-facing windows open to winter sun.
Created for viewers interested in old house insulation, window winterizing, and low-cost home heating tips, this narration fits searches for bubble wrap windows, DIY storm window ideas, draft prevention, and affordable energy-saving tricks for cold weather. It is especially useful for homeowners, renters, and anyone looking for practical winter home maintenance advice and traditional Amish-style homesteading know-how.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Put your hand flat on your window tonight. Not the frame, the glass. Hold it there for the count
00:06of ten. That cold coming into your palm is your heat going out. All winter long, every hour,
00:14the fire or the furnace makes warmth and it drifts across the room and lays itself against that pain
00:21and goes straight through it to the outdoors like water through a sieve. A single sheet of window
00:28glass is one of the poorest things a house is made of for holding heat. The wall around it,
00:34even an old uninsulated one, keeps in many times what the glass does. So you can have a snug house
00:42with a handful of big old windows in it and still be heating the yard. And the usual answer is
00:49new
00:49windows, which is a very large sum of money, and in an old house often the wrong answer anyway.
00:57There is another answer, and it is about as old as glass, and the cheapest form of it comes on
01:03a
01:04roll and costs a few dollars. I am Elias Yoder. I farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Our house
01:12is old. Some of the glass in it is older than anybody living, and we heat it with wood. Every
01:19stick that goes through that stove was cut and split and stacked by hand, which gives a man strong
01:26feelings about where the heat goes afterward. I gathered the whole of it into a book at
01:32EliasYoder.com. The book is the long version. If you want it, it is there. I will not mention it
01:40again.
01:41My grandmother taught me this on a cold morning when I was about nine. There were two rooms in the
01:48old
01:48house that faced the same way, the kitchen and the parlor, and every autumn my grandfather went round
01:54with a ladder and hung the storm sashes, the second set of windows that hook on to the outside of
02:00the
02:00frame, for winter. That year he had done the parlor and not yet got to the kitchen when the first
02:07real
02:08cold came in the night. In the morning the kitchen window was thick with frost on the inside,
02:15ferns and feathers all over it, and water running down onto the sill where the stove had started to
02:21warm it. I thought it was beautiful. She took me by the hand into the parlor. Same wall, same cold,
02:29same night. That window was clear. No frost at all on the inside of it. She had me put my
02:37hand on the
02:38kitchen glass and then on the parlor glass. The kitchen one was so cold it hurt. The parlor one
02:45was cool, but only cool. I asked her whether my grandfather had put something on the parlor glass
02:52to stop the frost. She said no. He had put something in front of it. Then she said the thing
02:59I have
02:59thought of every autumn since when I go round with the ladder myself. One pain keeps out the wind.
03:06It takes two to keep out the cold. Those storm sashes were not a luxury, by the way. For most
03:14of
03:14the last two hundred years, in any cold part of this country, they were simply how a house was kept.
03:21A great many old houses still have the little iron hooks and hangers screwed into the outside of the
03:27window frames and the sashes themselves stacked in a barn loft or long since burned. People buy those
03:35houses and paint over the hooks and never once ask what they were for. Now let me tell you why,
03:42because once you understand it, a roll of bubble wrap stops looking like a joke.
03:48Glass lets heat straight through it. It is thin and it is solid, and warmth passes across it easily.
03:56Two panes of glass pressed together would be scarcely better than one.
04:00What stops heat is still air. Air that is held and cannot move. Your warmth has to cross that air
04:09to get out, and still air is a very poor road for heat to travel. That is why a down
04:16quilt is warm,
04:17and why wool is warm, and why a haystack stays warm inside in January. None of them are warm
04:25themselves. They hold air still. So a storm window is not really a second piece of glass.
04:32It is a pocket of still air held between two pieces of glass, a couple of inches deep, sealed off
04:40from
04:40the room and from the weather. That pocket is what kept my grandmother's parlor window clear.
04:46And a sheet of bubble wrap stuck to a pane is exactly the same idea on a small scale.
04:53Every one of those bubbles is a little sealed pocket of still air, and you are laying a whole
04:59field of them against the glass. You have made a storm window out of a packing material. And it is
05:07why a house with thick walls and small windows stayed warm, and a house with thin walls and great
05:13sheets of glass does not. The old builders knew exactly where the heat went. They put the windows
05:21where the light was needed and kept them only as big as they had to be, and they doubled them
05:26in
05:27winter. Nobody had to explain it to them in numbers. They could feel it with their hands, the same as
05:33you
05:34are about to. That is also why the frost stops. Frost and running water form on the inside of a
05:42window
05:42because the glass is so cold that the damp in your room turns to water on it. Put a layer
05:50of still air
05:51between the room and the glass, and the surface facing you stays warmer and the water does not form,
05:58or forms far less. One more thing on that because it matters for how you do the job. The air
06:06has to be
06:07still, and it has to be sealed. A sheet of plastic hung loosely a few inches off a window does
06:14much
06:15less than you would think, because the air behind it is free to move and circle, and moving air carries
06:22heat nearly as well as none at all. The bubbles work because each little pocket is closed off from
06:31every other. That is the whole secret of them, and it is why a loose curtain and a snug layer
06:37against the glass
06:38are not the same thing. Now, how to do it? Because it is simple, but there are two or three
06:45things that make
06:46the difference between it working and it falling off in a week. First, the size of bubble. Get the larger
06:55bubbles
06:55if you can find them, the ones about half an inch across. Bigger bubbles hold more still air, and the
07:03tiny ones, meant for wrapping glasses, do much less. The kind sold in rolls for packing and moving
07:11is what you want. Second, clean the glass first. Wipe it and let it dry. Grease and dust are what
07:20stop
07:21it holding. And if you cannot find large bubble wrap in a shop, ask at any place that receives
07:28deliveries. A great deal of it comes into a town every week and goes out again with the rubbish.
07:36Third, cut each piece to the glass itself, not the frame. Measure the pane and cut the wrap just a
07:45hair smaller so it sits flat inside the wooden edges without buckling against them. If your window
07:52has several small panes, cut a piece for each. It takes longer and it holds a great deal better.
08:01Fourth, and this is the part that surprises people, you need no tape and no glue. Take a spray bottle
08:09of
08:10plain water and mist the glass lightly all over. Then lay the wrap on with the bubble side against the
08:18glass and the flat side facing into the room and press it down, working from the middle out to the
08:25edges
08:26with the flat of your hand. The water holds it by suction and it will stay up all winter. Mind
08:34your footing
08:35while you do the upper panes. A spray bottle, a wet window and a step stool is a combination that
08:42puts
08:43people on the floor. Get the stool square and do not lean out past it to reach the far corner.
08:51Move it.
08:52Why bubbles to the glass? The bubbles make many small contact points and the water grips them well and it
09:01leaves the flat sides smooth toward the room where it will not snag or collect dust. If a piece starts
09:09to lift at a corner in a few weeks, peel it back, mist again and press it down. That is
09:17all the maintenance
09:18there is. On a very cold night you may find a piece has let go entirely and is lying on
09:25the sill in the morning.
09:26That is nearly always a pain that was not quite clean or a piece cut a little too big so
09:34it bowed
09:35against the frame. Clean it, trim it and put it back and it will stay. And when spring comes you
09:43peel it
09:43off, the water dries and there is nothing left on the glass at all. Number each piece on a strip
09:51of
09:51masking tape in the corner and roll them up together and next autumn they go straight back up in about
09:5810 minutes a window. Now let me be square about where this earns its keep and where it does not,
10:04because not every window in your house deserves it. Where it does the most is old single pane glass,
10:12the kind in an old farmhouse or an old sash window or a cheap window in an outbuilding. That is
10:19where you
10:20will feel the difference with your hand the same afternoon. Metal framed windows are a special case
10:27worth knowing about. The old steel and aluminum frames that were popular in the middle of the last
10:33century conduct cold terribly, and you will often find the frame colder than the glass. Wrap helps the
10:41glass but not the frame, and on those windows a heavy curtain closed at dark does more of the work.
10:49Where it does a little is on double glazing. Those windows already have a sealed pocket of still air
10:56in them, which is the whole idea of them, so adding one more layer does something, but not a great
11:02deal.
11:03If you have good sealed double glazing, your money and your time are better spent elsewhere. And I will add
11:11a caution there. On sealed double glazed units, especially the ones with a coating or a tint,
11:18check what the maker says before you stick anything to them. A few of them do not want anything applied
11:25to the glass, and there is no sense risking a window to save a dollar of heat. And if you
11:32have windows that
11:33are genuinely old, with the wavy glass in them and the putty going, this is a kinder thing to do
11:40to
11:40them than it sounds. It adds nothing to the glass, and it takes nothing away. It does not ask you
11:48to
11:48replace a window that has been in that house for a hundred and forty years, which is often the thing
11:54the old windows need most, somebody willing to keep them rather than throw them out. Where to put it
12:01first, if you are choosing? North windows, which get no sun to speak of and lose heat all day.
12:10Windows in rooms you do not look out of much—a bathroom, a stairwell, a back bedroom, a pantry,
12:17a cellar window. And the big ones, because a large pane loses a great deal. Where not to put it?
12:26On a south window that you want the winter sun through, think twice. A south window on a clear
12:33winter day is bringing heat into the house, and bubble wrap cuts some of that sun as well as holding
12:41in the warmth. On those I would hang a heavy curtain instead and close it at dark. One more thing
12:49about
12:49timing. Put it up before the first hard cold rather than after it. Glass that is already cold and wet
12:58with condensation will not take the wrap well, and you will be fighting it. A mild dry afternoon in
13:06autumn, with the windows washed, and you can do a whole house in a morning. Doing it in the dark
13:13on
13:13the first freezing night with water running down the pane is a miserable job, and I have done it that
13:19way more than once and learned nothing from it. Now the plane limits, and there are a few. You will
13:27lose
13:28your view. Light comes through, soft and bright, but the world outside turns into a blur. That is the price,
13:37and it is why you do not put it on the window over the kitchen sink where you watch the
13:42yard. If that
13:43bothers you on a particular window, there is a middle road. Wrap only the lower half, or only the upper
13:51sash,
13:52on a double hung window, and leave a strip you can see through. Half the pain covered is still half
14:00the loss stopped, and you keep your eye on the yard. A word on what you can add to it
14:06that costs
14:07nothing, because the old people never relied on one thing. Heavy curtains, closed at dark and opened in
14:16the morning. A curtain that reaches right down to the sill or the floor, and hangs close to the wall,
14:23makes another pocket of air between it and the glass. It is the same principle one more time,
14:30and it is the reason every old house had heavy curtains, and every modern one has thin ones. Open
14:38them in the day so the sun can come in. Close them the moment it goes down. And the shutters
14:45on the
14:46outside of an old house were not for decoration either. They were closed on the worst nights for
14:52exactly the same reason. It will not stop a draft. A good deal of the cold in an old house
15:00is not
15:00coming through the glass at all. It is coming round it, through the gaps where the sash meets the frame,
15:07and where the frame meets the wall. Bubble wrap does nothing whatever for that, and I will say plainly
15:13that on many old windows the draft round the edge is the bigger loss of the two. Stop that first
15:21if you
15:21can. It is not a mold cure, whatever anybody tells you. It reduces the water on the glass, which helps,
15:28but a damp house is a damp house. If you do find water gathering behind the wrap between it and
15:36the
15:36glass, lift it, dry the glass and the sill properly, and put it back on a dry day. Water sitting
15:44on a wooden
15:44sill all winter is how sills rot. And a note on the one kind of window people get wrong most.
15:52The small cellar
15:53window, set at ground level in a stone or block wall, is very often single pane, often cracked, and it
16:01is sitting
16:02right beside your water pipes. That is one of the best places in any house for a sheet of bubble
16:08wrap,
16:08and it may do more for you there than on any window you look out of, because it is keeping
16:14the cold off
16:15the pipes as well as the room. And do not expect a miracle on the bill. It is a real
16:21saving, and you
16:22will feel it in the room, but it is a few windows in a whole house. Put it on the
16:27worst of them, stop the
16:29drafts round them, close heavy curtains at dark, and together those do a good deal. And one plain
16:36word for renters, since a good many of you are. This is about the only real thing you can do
16:42to a
16:42cold rented flat that leaves no mark whatever. No screws, no glue, no tape on the paintwork, nothing to
16:51explain when you hand back the keys. It peels off in May, and the landlord will never know it was
16:57there, and you will have been warmer for five months. There is no scheme in any of this, and nobody
17:04arranged anything. The money simply runs the other way. A new window is a very large sum of money, and
17:11there are good men who make a fair living fitting them, and for some houses new windows are the right
17:17answer. It is only that nobody makes a living telling you a two dollar roll of packing wrap
17:23and a spray bottle will do half the job on an old pane, so nobody says it, and a thing
17:29nobody has a
17:30reason to say gets forgotten inside of one generation. What got lost was not a product. It was a man
17:38going
17:38round with a ladder every autumn hanging a second sash, because his grandmother had once put his hand on two
17:45panes of glass on a cold morning. I will say one more thing for the old way, because it is
17:51easy to
17:52laugh at packing wrap on a window. Nobody laughed at my grandfather's storm sashes. They were ordinary
17:58scents done by ordinary people every autumn for longer than any of us has been alive. The bubble wrap
18:06is only the cheap modern version of a thing the whole country used to do without thinking about it. The
18:13idea is not new at all. We just stopped doing it. So here is what I would have you do
18:18tonight,
18:19and it costs nothing at all. Go round your house after dark with the heat on, and put the flat
18:25of
18:25your hand on the glass of every window for the count of ten. You are going to find that some
18:31are cold,
18:32and some are very cold, and you will know without being told which ones to do first. And if you
18:38want to see
18:39it for yourself before you spend a thing, do one pane of one window this week, and leave the others
18:45alone. Then go back on the next cold night, and put one hand on each. Tell me in the comments
18:51what
18:52county you are in, and how old your house is. And tell me this as well. Does your house still
18:58have
18:59the hooks on the outside of the window frames where the storm sashes used to hang? A great many old
19:05houses
19:05do, and a great many people have never known what they were for. Next time I want to go after
19:11the
19:11other half of this, because the glass is only part of where the cold comes in. The rest of it
19:16is coming
19:17round the frame, and round the doors, and up through the floor, and a lit candle carried slowly round the
19:24edges of your rooms will show you every bit of it in about twenty minutes, far more exactly than your
19:31hand
19:31ever could. One pane keeps out the wind. It takes two to keep out the cold. The people who built
19:39this
19:39country with their hands knew that, and we are only just starting to remember it.