How to Use Windbreaks to Reduce Home Heating Expenditures

A windbreak of trees and shrubs can shield your home.

For houses in open spaces or rural areas, wind can create a cooling effect on the house. This effect causes a rise in the use of heating fuel, which raises the cost of home heating. Building a windbreak helps reduce the cost of home heating expenditures. Properly placed and planned windbreaks can reduce the heating costs for your house.

Things You'll Need

• Graph paper
• Pencil
• Ruler
• Compass
• Trees
• Bushes
• Measuring wheel
• Stakes
• String

Instructions

Locating Wind and Sun

1. Make a scale drawing of your property on the graph paper. Use 1/4 inch to equal 1 foot. Draw the outline of your home in the center of the paper. Insert the location of the windows and doors. Measure the width of all exterior walls. Mark the width of each wall at the wall on the paper. Measure the height of the house at the highest point. Mark this measurement at where the highest point would be on the paper.

2. Use the compass to find the geographic directions of north, south, east and west. Identify geographic directions of north, south, east and west in accordance with the house; mark those on the paper.

3. Observe the sun and wind over the time span of one winter season. Make notes on the paper about the direction of snow drifts and cold spots inside the house. Observe the sun during the summer of the same year. Make notes on the paper about where the sunlight strikes the house between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. These notes will help determine the direction of winds and the location of windbreaks and shading; this will help reduce heating in winter and keep heat in during early spring and autumn.

Planning the Windbreaks

1. Use the height of your house to determine the height required for the windbreak. The wind will move up and over the windbreak and then move at an angle back down to the ground. Windbreaks deflect wind speed and strength by up to 50 percent when used at a distance up to eight times the height of the house, according to information from the Iowa State University Extension.

2. Use the height of the windbreak to determine the distance of the windbreak from the house. Research the expected height of the trees you intend to use. The Natural Resources Conservation Service recommends placing the windbreak a distance from the house equaling two to five times the mature height of the trees.

3. Use the compass readings to determine the location of the windbreak. Place the windbreaks along the north or northwest side of the house. According to the Iowa State University Extension, windbreaks are most effective if you place them at right angles to the wind. Set the angle so the point faces into the wind; this helps deflect the wind away from the house.

4. Choose the material to use for the windbreak. Plan to use trees and shrubs with low crowns. Use evergreen trees such as Leyland cypress, which grows up to 50 feet high, for tall houses; use stout trees such as spruce, fir or cedar for dense low foliage. Plan to use shrubs and bushes on the windward side of the windbreak to help keep out snow drifts or drafts, recommends the U.S. Department of Energy.

5. Plan for natural insulators around the home. The U.S. Department of Energy suggests planting shrubs or bushes on the same side as the windbreak with a 1-foot gap between the mature plants and the house.

Planting the Windbreak

1. Use the measuring wheel to measure the physical distance from the house to where the windbreak will be located. Set a stake halfway into the ground at this point. Use this stake as the center of the angle. Measure from this point in either direction to get the two sides of the windbreak. Set stakes at the end of these measurements to make three points of a triangle.

2. Tie string to one of the end stakes. Pull the string tight to the middle stake. Loop the string around the middle stake. Pull the string tight to the third stake. Tie off the string. This will be the guide for planting the trees and bushes.

3. Plant the trees far enough apart to allow them to grow into the gaps between them. Most trees used for windbreaks require an average distance of 5 feet between them.

4. Plant the shrubs or bushes on the windward side of the trees so that a tree is on either side of a shrub or bush. This will fill in the gaps of the windbreak while the trees grow into maturity.

References

• Natural Resources Conservation Service: Conservation Practices That Save: Windbreaks/Shelterbelts
• U.S. Department of Energy: Energy Savers: Landscape Windbreaks
• Colorado State University Extension: Landscaping for Energy Conservation
• Iowa State University Extension: Farmstead Windbreaks - Planning
• Nurserymen: Trees for Windbreaks and Privacy Fences