A helpful guide to check you windows and doors for drafts

Rattling sash windows and Arctic-style drafts blowing through the gaps sound familiar? One of the simplest ways to ensure your home is environmentally friendly and save yourself huge amounts on heating bills is to make sure your home is draft-proof. This is especially true if you live in a historic (period) property.

Simple techniques can be used to reduce heat loss and your fuel costs. However, damming up all the gaps has its disadvantages, too, because a house needs ventilation to get rid of moisture generated by steamy baths, cooking pots, and even us. So what's a draft and what's ventilation?

Ventilation is good for your home

Ventilation keeps your house fresh and healthy. The air inside your home needs to be replaced with air from outside so that it doesn't become stale and damp. Homes need to be fitted out with vents in the right spaces extractor fans above stoves and in bathrooms, as well as wall vents and trickle vents in modern window construction. Drafts, however, are caused by accidental gaps.

If you feel cold air coming in, then warm air is certainly escaping a simple way to check for drafts is to light a candle and move it around the frames of windows and doors. Where the flame flickers most is where you have a draft. Once you find it, you can then deal with it.

Some gaps can be filled safely, but care needs to be taken when treating rooms with open fires or open fires as it's important that these have good ventilation. Care is also needed in moisture-producing rooms such as bathrooms, kitchens, and laundry rooms. A buildup of condensation causes the dreaded DAMP!

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