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Dulley's Money-Saving Tip #1038

Remove window screens in winter

(related column topic links - 970, 617)

In the winter, remove your screens in the south and east-facing windows and leave the screens in the north and west windows. Screens can block a substantial amount of free solar heat from coming in your windows. Since the most intense passive solar heat comes from the south, remove the south-facing screens in the winter. You probably get enough passive solar heat from the east also to make it worthwhile to remove these screens too.

Window screens will block some of the direct force of the winter wind, so leave them in the north-facing windows. There is no sun from the north in the winter anyway and the screens will reduce heat loss from the window. Although the west-facing windows receive as much sun as the east-facing windows, leave the screens in the west ones. Since the prevailing winter winds are from the northwest, you will save more energy by blocking the wind than you lose by blocking the afternoon sun.