My 1970s ABQ windows failed the dollar bill test, and new ones cut my July bill by $88
I finally got sick of my swamp cooler and old single pane windows fighting each other every summer. In early June I stood in front of the big west facing window in my living room and slid a dollar bill right through the closed seam without any resistance. That told me everything. I had Sandia Windows out here in Albuquerque swap out 9 windows, and the difference was obvious the first hot week. The house held temp way better, the cooler ran less, and my July electric bill dropped from $212 to $124. Old windows in this town are not just ugly, they are actively costing you money every single day. Has anyone else here done the dollar bill test and been shocked by how bad theirs were?
That dollar bill trick is brutal because you think your windows are fine until you actually test them, then it's like oh great, I've basically been cooling the whole neighborhood. My parents had the same issue with their place over on the west side, and when they finally checked, the bill slid through like it was going out a drive-thru window. Honestly the fact that your bill only dropped to $124 is wild, I'd have expected more savings with how nasty this summer has been. My buddy did his windows last year and said the first thing he noticed wasn't the bill, it was that his cooler actually shut off sometimes instead of running nonstop until midnight. Old single pane stuff in this town is basically a monthly donation to PNM.