You'll recoup your investment this winter, but in the long run, it's probably going to cost you much more than you save.

If you have wooden sash, you'll probably end up getting condensation trapped between the film and the window and after just a year or 2, you're going to have a lot of rotted wood to replace.

I speak from experience. Some years ago, DH thought he was doing a 'good' thing when he sealed our windows to insulate against heat loss. Sure, we saved a few pennies that winter, but we ended up having a lot of repair work to do instead--replacing wood on the windows, and dealing with the mold that resulted.

It's also a health issue--houses aren't supposed to be air-tight. That creates a very unhealthy situation, and is when you can have problems with gasses like radon or carbon monoxide building up.

Everything in life is a trade-off. Keep an eye on the situation, and if you see a lot of moisture building up, you're going to want to take care of the problem promptly, before you end up having to (expensively) replace wood or whole windows.

We no longer seal everything up tight--no film, no rope caulk. Doesn't make that much difference in the bill and we are careful in other ways, so we don't waste the electric we're paying for. I know our house is healthier, and I believe we are, too.

OMG. I never thought of condensation build-up. I'll keep an eye out for that. Thanks for the tip. If worse comes to worse and I see condensation I suppose I could poke a small hole in the film to let it breath and still keep it up to keep rooms from being drafty.

I have an older 1949 house. The windows jiggle when it is windy sometimes and the blinds sway.

I had all the kitchen windows replaced this summer with those nifty new "thermal pane" ones and I love them, but right now I don't have a bucket of money to do the whole house with new windows.

I bought those rubber sweep strips that you put on the bottom of your door and a friend laughed at my efforts. He said I wasn't going to "save any money" on my heating bill with "those things", but that wasn't why I did it. It stopped the draft that I had, that made the tile floor in the foyer ice cold. It also stopped the draft from under the attic door that made my hallway floor cold all the time. I didn't want those cloth snakes that you have to keep kicking back in place all the time.

I understand what you say about not sealing up a house completely. I don't think I have reached that point yet. I'm glad I was informed about the condensation issue though.

Might look at Redi-Shades to keep the heat away from that cold plastic. They're available at home depot and lowes here. I like em because I'm cheap and they're easy(about $12 for 4 pack).
Pleated paper window shades, fairly easy to cut to fit with a new blade in a razor knife, and a straight edge. Have peel off sticky tape to quickly stick on.

Put them up here behind mini-blinds after putting on the 3M heat shrink storm windows on some leaky windows.

Power Meter says I'm saving about $5 per window per month.

Those shades are just like layering on clothing.. more layers of air in there equals more insulation. Heat always travels to cold.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.redishade.com/

If you want to keep your existing wood windows AND stop drafts, learn about spring bronze. It's a 1 time purchase weather stripping that can be installed on all old windows. You'll never need plastic again nor will you need new windows. Can be purchased at old style hardware stores or kilianhardware.com. Works on doors, too.

The window film is wonderful, I put it up last spring on our windows.

You can't possibly overseal your home. The best energy efficient homes built properly with the best cutting edge technology have a 1/2 air change per hour. Anything over 1/3 is safe. Older leaky homes can have as many as 50 air changes an hour.

Thank you mikie, for the tip on redishades.com! I mean a HUGE THANK YOU !!

Your advice has solved my kitchen window dilemma! I posted a looong time ago in the Windows Forum seeking advice on what to to about a new slider window. Nobody responded.

I have a slider window now installed, that was previously a picture window with inside mount blinds and now being a slider there was nothing staionary to mount blinds on. Outside mounts won't work as the new slider is in an alcove flanked by two smaller windows on the angled wall. The outside mounts hit each other unless I install them at different heights which looks stupid.

These temporary press on blinds will work for me until I can do somthing better. Maybe they will the the solution and solve the whole problem.

Someone just posted a couple of days ago under my ancient post in the Windows Forum asking if I had solved the issue, as they too are having the same problem and they were seeking advice. I going to post your suggestion over there.

Oh, and to add, I did get advice on another site to use bubble wrap to insulate the windows rather than that stretchy plastic.

I know you can buy the 'window tape' separate and do not need to buy the whole 'window kit' with the streatchy plastic and tape together in one box.

The bubble wrap will obscure the view but still let in light. Probably best used only on attic windows and maybe guest rooms that are seldom used or rooms that don't have much of a pretty view anyway.

Anyone tried bubble wrap with window tape?