Letterbox Winter Woes

Letterbox Design

The problem with old fashioned mail is that it needs a physical delivery system.

The problem with many mail delivery systems is that they’re open in that at some point the post-person will have to leave the posted item somewhere other than the hand of the recipient in most cases.

This implies that a safe accessible location is made available whether a mailbox outside the house or through an external letterbox allowing the posted item to physically pass into the delivery address i.e. a house.

This article is about the latter and concerns the design of the letterbox and the method of delivery.

Letterbox Design

Over the years letterbox design has changed from a simple metal flap to a complex weather sealed double flap arrangement designed to keep those cold breezes out when they are closed.

There used to be letterboxes with tough springs on them that were very difficult for the postman to open and equally difficult for the recipient to extract trapped letters from.

Either through reduction in spring quality or by design, letterbox flaps seem easier to use these days.

Delivery Method

The problem with tough springs is that they can hold mail, they can crush it but in any event they are not closed.

The problem with modern designs is that a lot of effort has been put into having an external door letterbox flap and an internal one with lots of draft proofing seals, none of which will work if there is an item of post trapped in the door.

The Environmental Disaster

Here we are again then, another little annoyance that is a disaster for our embattled environment.

When the wind is on the door and whether (pun unintended) the letterbox is old with a severe spring or indeed any spring or whether the letterbox is new, everything depends on the letterbox user (the postie) to stop the draft.

Diligent operatives will ensure that the mail is safely inside the residence, that is after all what they are contracted to do. Some may not, due to the pressures of time and leave an item trapped. In this circumstance, in winter with a cold wind on the front door there is an enormous loss of heat which can be equated to an enormous amount of heating needed to counteract said loss.

Simply put, the letterbox remains open, the wind gets in and your house gets cold.

Please Mr Postie, put the post right through and save the environment from even more CO2.