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The leaves are falling down here in the bottom half of the world, and it is getting cold, COLD, COLD , C-O-L-D ! Especially in our house. We live with our humans in a house that's over 100 years old, and it is FREEZING in winter. Although we have tried to win the lottery for many years to be able to afford double glazing, this has not happened yet. Then we stumbled across something on the internet, and thought we'd give it a try ... bubble wrap insulation.

And you know what? IT WORKS! We couldn't believe the difference it made. And at less than $100, it's much, much, MUCH cheaper than the quote we had of $18,000 for double glazing (we have a lot of windows). So, if your house is cold, follow these simple instructions, and see how much warmer you can quickly and affordably make your house.


This is all you need to insulate your house - bubble wrap, scissors, a measuring tape, and maybe a permanent marker (if you have odd shaped windows).
Measure your windows, and then measure the length and width of bubble wrap you need. You can use a permanent marker if you want, or just use the bubbles themselves to guide your cuts. 		If you have odd-shaped and/or long windows , you might need to work on the floor. We have odd shaped windows so needed to measure them and then mark where to cut the bubble wrap on the angle.
If you do have odd shaped windows, make sure you cut the bubble wrap the correct way around! We cut our the wrong way the first time. The bubbles FACE the window; the smooth plastic faces the room.


For longer windows you might need more than one pair of hooves ... one of you might have to hold the tape measure dispenser ...

... while the other one holds the end of the tape measure, and then marks the bubbles.
To apply the bubble wrap to the windows, simply wipe the windows with a wet cloth, and then press the bubble wrap onto the window, with the bubbles facing the window. It's that simple!
If you can't reach the top of the windows, you might be able to bungy jump from the ceiling. Otherwise, ask an adult to help you. 		Ferhad Junior and I check out the finished windows in a room. FUNKY! The bubble wrap stays in place as long as you want it to.
In spring, you can simply peel the bubble wrap off and pack it away, ready for next winter.

EXTRA INSULATION FOR EXTRA WARMTH

Some rooms might be extra cold. Our kitchen does not have any curtains, so it's extra, extra cold. To solve this, we bought a few metres of batting (also known as wadding, filler, or padding). It's that white stuff that forms a layer of of insulation used in quilting between a top layer of patchwork and a bottom layer of backing material. It's really cheap - ours was just $6.99 (NZD) per metre. You also need some strips of velcro.

Cut out the pieces of batting to fit your windows ... in our case we had two long rectangles, and two squares to fit our kitchen windows. We then cut our velcro into strips of about 2.5cm ... we used eight strips for the squares and 10 for the rectangles, placed like this:

For the velcro that is to go on the batting, you need to sew it on. Sticking it on doesn't work .... it comes off. Ask an adult human to help you with this. We use the fluffier velcro for the batting, and the spikier velcro for the window frame.


Cover the back of a piece of spikey velcro with some wood glue.
Press the piece of velcro in piece and stick it to the window frame. Leave it to set for at least 24 hours. 		For any pieces of velcro that have been cut out of a folded piece, use a bit of cellotape to stick them down flat. Remove the cellotape after 24 hours.
Using velcro to stick up the batting means you can easily put up the extra insulation at night, and take it down in the morning. Or, if your house is cold all day, you might like to cover the batting with some funky patterned material and just leave them up all winter!
Rebek checks out the batting added for extra insulation in our kitchen.
Ferhad Junior thinks the bubble wrap insulation makes the house looks very arty. 		If you have clerestories (those silly little windows at the top of a wall), then make these the first windows you bubble wrap. Hot air rises, and then whooshes out those silly things.

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