The quest to conserve
Soooo... in the never-ending winter and night that is Alaska, I've come upon an energy-saving conundrum.
I have two LARGE windows in the corner of my livingroom that face southeast and let in a lot of light. But it's 12 degrees outside and they also let in a lot of draft. Is it smarter to leave the blinds open and let in the light, or keep them closed and add the second layer of insulation?
My blinds were here when I moved in - custom, double-layer, blackout dealies that really do make a huge difference in the cold seeping in when I go over there and stand by them. But they REALLY do black out all light, which means I have to burn at LEAST 2 lightbulbs to function in here, since those are my only widows. I've switched to the super-lightbulbs. These use less energy, right? Also, a caveat: when I open the blinds, I have been using my gas-burning fireplace to make up for it. I've never had one before. I know natural gas is cleanish, but is it better to use that or my electric baseboard heat?
This is probably easily-solved by googling. But I'm lazy. :)
I have two LARGE windows in the corner of my livingroom that face southeast and let in a lot of light. But it's 12 degrees outside and they also let in a lot of draft. Is it smarter to leave the blinds open and let in the light, or keep them closed and add the second layer of insulation?
My blinds were here when I moved in - custom, double-layer, blackout dealies that really do make a huge difference in the cold seeping in when I go over there and stand by them. But they REALLY do black out all light, which means I have to burn at LEAST 2 lightbulbs to function in here, since those are my only widows. I've switched to the super-lightbulbs. These use less energy, right? Also, a caveat: when I open the blinds, I have been using my gas-burning fireplace to make up for it. I've never had one before. I know natural gas is cleanish, but is it better to use that or my electric baseboard heat?
This is probably easily-solved by googling. But I'm lazy. :)