Which Way Is The Wind Blowing?

I live in Calgary (Alberta, Canada). We've had a cold snowy winter. The other day it was minus 30 Celsius with a minus 38 Celsius windchill. For those in the US, this is pretty close to the same number in Fahrenheit). Either way it is cold and windy.

I noticed that some of our doors and windows were not sealed right and quite a breeze was blowing in. This made the house feel cold and it was costing us money; not to mention wasteful from a green perspective.

So I picked up some materials from the local hardware store and proceeded to do some fixing.

First off. Doors don't have equally sized gaps in our house. This meant that I had to use different materials in difference parts of the door. Replacing the doors was out of scope and budget.

Second, doors need to open and close. This is why they are doors and not walls. You can't use too much filling/sealing or the doors won't open and close. They may be sealed, but you can't come and go.

Some windows also need to open and close, but if they leak a lot, you can seal them up for the winter. However, in summer the coverings come off and you have to repeat next year.

That was when the wind was blowing from the northwest.

Today the wind was blowing from the southeast (still wasn't warm and tropical though). Today there were a whole bunch of other leaks to discover and fix.

I think business is like that. You have do things differently in different circumstances. You can't be married to what worked yesterday. Things change and not all customers are the same. You have to accept that.

Knowing which way the wind is blowing is half the trick.

The other half is knowing what to do about it.