High-efficiency furnaces and programmable thermostats can't help you much if winter seeps in everywhere there's a view. Luckily, Wired's How-To Wiki offers a 101 course in weatherproofing your windows. Surprisingly, it actually recommends those hair-dryer-applied plastic window sheets.

Image via mookitty.

Weather stripping around the edges of your windows, for example, is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to keep out the cold air, especially if you live in a notably cold climate and use their recommended vinyl:

Measure all the surfaces between the sashes and the frame — the sashes are the movable pieces that hold the glass panes, and the frame is the box built into the wall that holds the sashes. If you have a double-hang window that slides up on a track to open, make sure you measure across the middle of the frame where the two sashes meet when the window closes. Add up all the measurements, then add 10 to 15 percent to the length to account for mistakes. That's how much stripping you'll need.

What's been the most effective weatherproofing you've installed around your house? Having just stapled the draft dodgers to the doors and measured our windows, we're open to any and all suggestions for fighting the Northeast's yearly fury.

Weatherproof Your Windows [Wired How-To Wiki]