Reduce Your Heating Bills: How to Find and Seal Air Leaks
November/December 2007
Troy Griepentrog
As the winter breezes blow, don't turn up your thermostat.
Instead, seal the air leaks in your house and stop those cold
drafts. Stopping outside air from entering the house is an easy way
to reduce your heating and cooling bills and make your home more
comfortable.
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How to find air leaks
You can feel air leaks. On a cold, windy day, you'll be
able to feel cold drafts, particularly around doors and windows,
but you can also feel cool air in other drafty spots, such as near
electrical outlets that are in outside walls.
You can see air leaks. If ice is forming on the floor
or wall near a door or a window, you've probably got a serious
breach in the 'envelope' of your house.
More subtle gaps can be detected other ways. You can have a
professional evaluation done (often called an energy audit); your
utility company may provide this service. But you can do a simple
check yourself. On a windy day, close all doors and windows
tightly. Turn off all ceiling and vent fans, and be certain your
forced air furnace isn't running (if you have one). Light a stick
of incense or a smoke pencil, then move slowly through the house,
stopping by potentially drafty spots. Watch where the smoke goes
and how quickly it moves. This will give you a good indication of
how the air is moving in your house. Be careful not to blow the
smoke around as you breathe.
The DIY evaluation, though, won't necessarily tell you about
some other problematic areas, such as plumbing vents that run
through walls and out through the roof. A
chart
from the Southface Energy
Institute shows that the wall plates, the area where your walls
meet the foundation, are the largest source of leaks in most
houses.
How to seal leaks
Although air leaks through light switches and electrical outlets
in outside walls account for only a small percentage of energy
loss, everything adds up. Plus, installing inexpensive pre-cut
sheets of insulation around these switches is super easy. Start
with this simple step; you can find them at home improvement
stores. Then caulk around leaky windows and door frames.
