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If you live in New England, the fall is a good time to winterize your house. It's much more enjoyable to do this work before the cold weather arrives. With a small amount of effort, skills, and money, you can reduce cold air drafts, save money on your heating bills, and keep everyone warmer during the cold weather months. Here are some typical issues and solutions you can implement yourself.
Inspect the door carefully to locate the source of air leaks. The bottom is the most frequent culprit. If so, install a good quality door sweep. They come in white or brown plastic, and aluminum. I recommend those with a metal strip rather than just plastic. If you do decide to use a plastic door sweep, I recommend using slotted head, 1/2" x 4 size screws, or tacks, in addition to the adhesive strip to attach it to the door because the adhesive strips by themselves frequently come loose. Make certain before you install the door sweep to check the vertical location both with the door fully closed (to make certain the bottom of the sweep meets the threshold) and fully open (to make certain the bottom of the sweep doesn't bind against the floor). In old houses when everything isn't level, the sweep could bind against the floor when it opens wide if it's installed too close to the bottom of the door.
The sides and top are a little trickier. Inspect carefully to see if there a uniform size gap along the entire side/top. If it narrows, you'll need to apply the insulation just in the gap portion. Measure the widest part of the gap as well as the width since the materials come in different sizes including 3/8" or 1/2" wide by 1/4" or 5/16" thick. Use either vinyl foam weather seal or tubular vinyl or sponge rubber gasket and fit it in just wide enough to fill any gaps. This type of insulation either comes with an adhesive backing or will need to be screwed/tacked into place. Alternatively you could use adhesive backed plastic V strips, although these will likely need to screwed or tacked these since the adhesive frequently isn't enough to hold in place.
If your windows don't close tightly and lock, that's the first issue to address. If the lock doesn't align, you can purchase window lock shims from the non-profit Boston Building Materials Co-op. Frequently older windows have drafty gaps that can occur along the top, bottom, sides, and where the top and bottom sashes meet. The easiest, quickest, cheapest short-term solution for this is to apply rope caulk weatherstrip to seal those areas. I recommend the 1/4" size. I've tried 3/16" and it breaks apart when applying and is not big enough to fill many of the large gaps found in older homes. You can purchase it in white, gray, or brown to match your window sashes. The only brand I've found that makes white is Ace. You can obtain that from your neighborhood Ace-affiliated hardware store; the product number is 52516. For large gaps, double up the rope before you install it. If you have wooden windows with sash weights, don't forget to seal the pulley holes, frequently a great source of cold air infiltration!
There are some simple steps you can take to improve this. Inspect carefully to find any drafty spots. These frequently are the doors to the outside, and around the sill.
For drafty doors, take the same action that's outlined above for doors.
Seal any gaps around the sill with a good quality latex caulk. You can obtain the caulk in various colors including clear. It's easily applied with a caulk gun. You can smooth it with you fingers if necessary; latex caulk washes off easily with water. If you do this on in bright daylight, turning off the lights in the basement may allow you to see daylight from inside. This is an easy way to locate the gaps to caulk!
Take these simple steps and you'll have a warmer winter!