Energy 101

Source: U.S. EPA

Lesson I: Building Science and Airflow

• When you heat or cool your home, that cost is a reflection of what is called ‘air changes per hour’ or ACH.
• A high ACH means that more air enters and exists a building than needed for indoor air comfort—carrying away heating and cooling dollars spent. If you reduce your home’s ACH you reduce your heating and cooling costs!
• Building science is a systematic approach toward identifying where air leaks are happening—infiltration—and where heated or cooled air finds paths to exit—exfiltration.
• Air-sealing is how these leaks get plugged!

Lesson II: Air-sealing

That chill or breeze you feel in your home is caused by air leakage and accounts for roughly one-third of heating and cooling costs. Common practice is to install more insulation. INSULATION RESISTS AIR LEAKAGE; IT DOES NOT STOP IT!

• Every outlet or switch, water or waste line, heating pipe or duct is a hole in your thermal boundary—what separates the conditioned space from the outside.
• On a windy day, if you can feel a breeze inside your home, you are experiencing air leakage.
• Air-sealing is how you can improve indoor comfort and lower your heating and cooling bills.

Lesson III: Finding the holes and plugging them up

Now that you have an idea why your energy costs are what they are, here’s some energy-saving measures that will help shrink those costs:

• Caulk and weatherstrip doors and windows that leak air.
• Caulk and seal air leaks where plumbing, ducting, or electrical wiring penetrates through walls, floors, ceilings, and soffits over cabinets.
• Install foam gaskets behind outlet and switch plates on walls. Caulk the gaps between the drywall and junction box and install child safety caps
• Look for dirty spots in your insulation, which often indicate holes where air leaks into and out of your house. You can seal the holes with foam sealants.
• Look for dirty spots on your ceiling paint and carpet, which may indicate air leaks at interior wall/ceiling joints and wall/floor joists. Simple caulking can effectively seal many of these holes.
• Install storm windows over single-pane windows or replace them with more efficient windows, such as double-pane, ENERGY-STAR® rated windows.
• When the fireplace is not in use, keep the flue damper tightly closed. A chimney is designed specifically for smoke to escape, so until you close it, warm air is escaping 24/7/365!
• For new construction, reduce exterior wall leaks by installing house wrap, taping the joints of exterior sheathing, and comprehensively caulking and sealing the exterior walls.
• Use foam sealant around larger gaps around windows, baseboards, and other places where air may be leaking out.
• Kitchen exhaust fan covers can keep air from leaking in when the exhaust fan is not in use. Look to make sure that the outside cover closes when the fan is not in use.
• Replacing existing door bottoms and thresholds with one that has pliable sealing gaskets will help eliminate conditioned air leaking out.
• Fireplace flues are made from metal, and over time repeated heating and cooling can cause the metal to warp or break, creating a channel for hot or cold air loss. Inflatable chimney balloon are designed to fit beneath your fireplace flue during periods of non-use. They are made from several layers of durable plastic and can be removed easily and reused hundreds of times. Should you forget to remove the balloon before making a fire; the balloon will automatically deflate within seconds of coming into contact with heat

Source: U.S. Department of Energy