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A draft stopper is a cheap way to save energy in the home, and it costs less than ten dollars. Heck, you can even make a draft stopper yourself, no problem. A draft stopper is a self-explanatory device. You put it against a drafty door or window and it stops the drafts. But how well does it stop them?
According the EERE 11&perc; of air leaking out of the house is door-related and 10&perc; is attributed to the windows. Drafts, on a whole, sap 5-30&perc; of your home energy use. And those pesky windows account for 10-25% of your heating bills, sealed or unsealed.
I'm not the greatest at math—I called a math teacher to double check my math for this article—but I think I can estimate the amount of energy a draft stopper can stop if a draft stopper can stop drafts. If thirty percent of a home's energy goes out through drafts, and 11 percent of those drafts go out through the doors, then we need to figure out 11 percent of 30 percent. That's 3.3&perc; .So a draft stopper reduces heat loss by 3.3&perc; for doors and 3&perc; for windows. Heat loss is reduced by over six percent by draft stoppers. Of course, this is a rough estimate based on other estimates. Hopefully, you get the idea of the effectiveness of the device.
Note: You can buy a draft stopper that looks like a wiener dog, which is awesome.
