About Real Estate: ‘Bubble wrap’ can help cut home-utility costs

Those bubble-filled sheets of plastic that are commonly used to protect fragile items can protect against high energy bills, too.

DEAR MR MYERS: Have you ever heard of using “bubble wrap” that’s used to wrap fragile items on windows instead, in order to save on energy costs? If so, does it really work?

ANSWER: Yes, most energy-saving experts say that bubble wrap — those sheets of plastic packing material covered with small air cushions to protect easily breakable goods — can help to slash a homeowner’s monthly heating bills.

The catch is that the windows have to be selected carefully, and the bubble wrap has to be applied appropriately.

Bubble wraps are practical only in lesser-used areas, such as windows in an attic, basement or garage. After all, you wouldn’t want to look out of your kitchen or living-room window on a sunny day and see nothing but a sheet of pimpled plastic.

Clean the window first. Then mist it with water and put the wrap on the pane, with the bubble side against the glass. The air bubbles help to block cold air from coming inside, cutting the heat loss from an uninsulated window in half.

Because there’s no glue involved, you can simply peel the plastic off when the weather warms.

Poorly insulated windows are among the biggest energy-wasting items in a home, experts say, even though many homeowners don’t even know that they have such a problem.

To test your windows, place a lit incense stick near the glass. If smoke from the stick moves, you have a leak. Seal it with an inexpensive tube of caulking.

Rarely-used fireplaces also are often-overlooked energy goblins, because a sizable portion of the warm air generated by a home’s furnace disappears up the chimney. If you have a fireplace that you don’t use very often, you can buy a small “chimney balloon” that keeps the furnace’s warm air from escaping.

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