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Do you have drafty doors throughout your home? You’ve wanted to upgrade the doors to a less drafty model, but there always seems to be another home repair issue that takes up more of your time and budget first. You may consider using draft door stoppers as a stopgap, but do they save energy? If so, how much?
Reducing air leaks with draft door stoppers can lessen energy usage between 10 and 20 percent on your HVAC, but keep in mind that your savings when using door stoppers can vary based on several factors. These include your temperature preferences, climate, number of doors, and how drafty your doors are.
In today’s article, we’ll introduce you to draft door stoppers, then delve deeper into how much energy they may be able to save you. Make sure you check it out!
What Are Draft Door Stoppers?
Draft blockers or draft stoppers are a simple solution that can double as weatherstripping when appropriately used.
The stopper includes a tube made of a soft material like cloth. Stuffed inside the fabric are beans, rice, or batting to give the door stopper weight and allow it to block the air.
Once you purchase a draft stopper, you can lay it wherever your home is draftiest. Draft blockers work well underneath doors but are also efficient for drafty windows.
A draft stopper serves a twofold purpose. First, it locks in whatever warm air is in the house (or cool air in the case of the summertime).
Second, the draft stopper keeps outside air from getting into your home. As a result, you’ll have fewer areas of warm, stagnant air entering your house in the summer and less cold air blowing in during the winter.
Admittedly, a draft door stopper is an eyesore, but hey, if it works, it works!
How Much Energy Can You Save by Using Draft Door Stoppers?
So, does a draft blocker work? Yes, it can!
According to Energy.gov, reducing home draftiness could improve your year-over-year energy savings by 10 to 20 percent.
However, Energy.gov doesn’t mention door stoppers specifically, so you can’t take that estimate and necessarily apply it to using draft door stoppers.
After all, your energy savings rate depends on several factors mentioned in the intro. Let’s look now.
Your Temperature Preferences
How do you like to keep your home? Maybe you prefer in-the-middle temperatures, such as an average room temperature range. In that case, draft stoppers could be an appealing energy-saving prospect for you.
Your Climate
The climate you live in and the temperature extremes you face will also impact how much energy you can save by adding draft stoppers under your doors and windows.
You have to use a lot of heating or cooling to keep your home comfortable throughout the year if you live in extreme climates.
Retaining more of those indoor temperatures while keeping extreme outdoor temperatures from getting in will make a more significant difference for you than for someone who doesn’t have as many weather fluctuations.
How Many Doors You Have
The greater the number of doors, the greater the draftiness.
Even if you were to set up door stoppers in front of a few of these doors, you should notice an improvement in how comfortable your home feels.
If you put draft door stoppers in front of every door in the house, the changes in comfort will be even more pronounced.
You can save more energy since air leaks contribute a lot to your utility bills month in and month out.
How Drafty Your Doors Are
Then again, that does depend on how drafty your doors are.
If all the doors are drafty, then the above benefits apply. However, even if only some of your doors are drafty, you can save energy by covering the gaps.
If only one or two of the doors in your home have sizable gaps, then you’re not really in for significant savings.
What Are Some Other Benefits of Draft Door Stoppers?
The amount of energy a draft stopper will save on your utility bills is negligible. Still, you may consider adding one or several stoppers to the doors throughout your house.
In that case, you can enjoy the following benefits.
Easy to Set Up
Some energy-saving solutions discussed on the blog are rather complex. You always appreciate the easy ones, like lowering your water heater temperature.
Well, using draft stoppers is another easy solution. It couldn’t be any easier!
All you have to do is buy a couple of draft stoppers, lay them in front of your door, and that’s all there is to it.
Low-Cost
You will only spend a little money to acquire a draft stopper, as these air-blocking solutions retail for between $10 and $20 a pop.
You’ll spend under $100 to block drafts if your home has four interior doors.
That’s much more cost-effective than replacing doors outright, which costs at least $50 per door but possibly up to $300 or $500 per door, says Angi.
A door stopper is only temporary if your doors are seriously drafty enough. You’ll save much more money upgrading to Energy Star doors than trying to blockade your old, drafty doors.
No Installation Necessary
It’s also beneficial how adding draft stoppers to your home doesn’t require any installation. As a result, you don’t have to set aside a weekend for the job or even an entire afternoon.
Suppose you have five or 10 minutes and enough draft stoppers. You can cover each door and enjoy a more comfortable home that’s moderately more eco-friendly than before you used the door stoppers.
It Could Help If You Have Allergies and/or Asthma
Do you have allergies? Perhaps another family member in the house does.
Breathing in outdoor air is a great way to aggravate allergies, especially if you react to pollen. That’s why you usually keep the windows closed, even on a nice day.
Your drafty doors can negate all your hard work as the pollen-filled air seeps in from the outside.
Adding a door stopper or several around your home will keep more of that indoor air trapped in place.
As for those with asthma, breathing in cold air can cause your airways to constrict, which makes it harder to breathe. You can also benefit if the air in your home stays at a more comfortable temperature.
So Where Can You Buy Draft Stoppers?
Locally, hardware stores like Home Depot and Lowes carry some in stock, but the selection may be limited. When you visit those sites, be sure to click “In Stock At Store Today” so you can see what’s local to you.
Other stores like Walmart, Target, and others locally may have them as well.
If you know the dimensions of your door (use a measuring tape to measure the width), it’s probably easiest to order online, and we all know what URL we type in first when shopping online these days.
To save you some time (potentially), here are some of the best-selling draft stoppers on Amazon right now:
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Conclusion
Blocking drafts from doors and windows in your home can reduce your utility spending by 10 to 20 percent. Part of the solution for lowering draftiness could be using door draft stoppers.
Draft stoppers are inexpensive, don’t require installation, and can be moved and reused later, so they’re a good value.
That said, they’re putting a Band-Aid over a broken arm. Until you upgrade your drafty doors to Energy Star doors, you will continue to pay for air leaks month in and month out.
Purchasing an Energy Star-approved door will keep your home comfortable, reduce your utility bills, and make air leaks a thing of the past!
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