Cheat Sheet: It's time to weather-strip, or save with new furnace

Winter is approaching, and despite predictions that the months of December to March will feature milder weather and lower energy prices, it never hurts to be prepared for the worst.

If we don't cover everything on the to-do list today, we still have a few weeks to cut away the weeds to get to the shrub, so to speak.

Consider your furnace.You might want to exchange your furnace for a newer model. Every year, according to federal statistics, 2.5 million American homeowners do. Yet of the 43 million residential oil and gas furnaces in operation in U.S. homes, the statistics say, one in four is over 20 years old. Many new furnaces on the market are 25 percent to 40 percent more efficient than older models. The Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star program promotes furnaces using a "condensing technology" as the most efficient. The efficiency rating on the label of every new furnace tells how much of the total energy the furnace uses will be delivered to the home as heat. The higher the rating, the better.

Stop the heat loss.Why buy a new and more efficient furnace if the heat escapes? Leaky windows and doors can be big sources of heat loss, so don't skimp on the weather-stripping around them. (If you have particularly leaky windows, you may want to use a plastic cover that shrinks onto the windows - it's less unsightly and damaging than stapling plastic to the frame.)

To decide where to install weather-stripping, try the candle test. Light a candle and move it around the window or door on a windy day. Note where the candle flickers; that's where the weather-stripping goes.

Make sure your windows have no cracked or broken panes. To extract a broken pane, remove the putty and glazing points, then have a piece of glass cut to fit, replace the points, and reglaze.

Also check the rubber seals around the glass of storm doors and windows. If they must be replaced, install weather-stripping rated for exterior use on doors and windows.

This may be the time to consider replacing your old, leaky windows with new energy-efficient ones, since there is an energy tax credit available for qualified ones (the windows themselves, not the installation costs).

Even with the credit, however, new windows may be out of reach for those on fixed incomes - those most vulnerable to energy-price spikes and who tend to live in older houses. Experts recommend replacing leaky windows gradually, starting with the most uncomfortable room.