Categories: Sponsored Post

How to Winterproof Your Home…With FIRE

This sponsored post comes to us from Clean Currents, another post in the It’s Not Easy Being (Dave) Greene Series. We met Dave Greene in a previous post.

Yikes, talk about an Indian Summer! Even though it’s been climate-changingly toasty this past week, the Farmer’s Almanac is predicting a nasty winter — and it’s right around the corner. So last weekend I got my housemate Jack to help me out with winterizing our windows, and we actually succeeded in making it through the project without any major accidents, spills, or mistakes!

Just kidding. How much fun would it be to read about a totally successful green DIY project? Plus you’d probably all think your buddy Dave had been kidnapped by ultra-savvy eco dude Paul from down the block (jerk).

Winterize Your Home: Testing for Leaks

Anyways, I thought the project was going to be simple enough: we’d use a quick test to figure out where the leakiest windows were, then use some caulk to seal them up.

The test involves a hair dryer and a candle. Jack went outside with an extension cord and a hair dryer we borrowed from his sister. I stood inside with the candle. Jack pointed the hair dryer at the edges of the windows and I watched the candle to see where it flickered, meaning air was sneaking through, and I’d mark that spot with a post-it note.

Watching the candle is the key tactic here, folks.

We got through a few windows, piece of cake. But then we were testing my bedroom windows and my cats Button and Bo were hanging out in there. Anyone who knows me knows I love my cats. And they were pretending to be insane cat ninjas in my closet. For a second, my mind wandered… “how many people would watch this YouTube video?

Dave’s “Winterize” Experiment: Trouble Hits

And that’s when I smelled smoke. Jack started banging on the window shouting, “Dave, the curtain! DAVE!”

I blew out the candle, grabbed the nearest blanket, and started swatting at the flaming curtain. Thankfully the fire hadn’t spread too far and I was able to stop it. But woah. That $%*! got real, and fast.

Lesson learned! Winterizing your house is a great idea, but not if you burn it down along the way.

The easiest part of the whole project was actually caulking the gaps we found. Just make sure the spot you want to caulk is clean first, use 100% silicone caulk, and make sure it ends up nice and smooth. There you have it! One totally weatherproof bachelor pad ready for whatever winter Mama Nature has to offer.

 

Photo: Murney

Guest Writer

Recent Posts

Moving Fast and Breaking Climate goals: What Pennsylvania’s Data Center boom means for local communities

$90 billion in investments could reshape the energy landscape, but community voices and renewable alternatives…

6 days ago

Trash competition, government shutdown, November elections, & more

Catch up on the latest sustainability news:  Block by Block launches citywide cleanup competition with…

6 days ago

From coal to solar affordability: PA’s next energy chapter shaped by HB 504

Farmers and city residents alike stand to benefit from local, homegrown power, says Land &…

1 week ago

Celebrating Solar at “Sun Day,” trash burning ban proposed & more

Catch up on the latest sustainability news:  Philly mobilizes for Sun Day solar energy celebration.…

2 weeks ago

You can be exposed to PFAS through food, water, even swimming in lakes – new maps show how risk from ‘forever chemicals’ varies

Drinking water isn’t the only way people are exposed to PFAS today. This article is…

2 weeks ago

Building connections: How Ash Richards uses land care as cultural preservation

The city’s Director of Urban Agriculture talks about the impact of history, gardening as collective…

2 weeks ago