If you are one of the many who sees their home energy bill spike during the coldest or warmest times of the year, it’s likely that your home isn’t sealed to its fullest potential. Air leaks, commonly around doors, windows, crawlspaces, or other troublesome areas are a huge cause for energy loss for homeowners. So, what can you do about them? Fortunately, a lot.
Proper air sealing can reduce and even eliminate the leaky air that causes these problems. If you are a homeowner, especially if living in an older home, you may be all too familiar with the issue of air leaks. Sometimes, you can even feel the air escaping from the home under a door or near a window, or, worse, feel unconditioned air rushing into the home. Luckily, there are a number of things you can do or get help with to make sure air leaks aren’t a problem.
One major step that needs to be addressed before fixing air leaks in the home is identifying the actual source of those leaks, which can sometimes be a tricky proposition. It’s possible to identify bad leaks either visually or by feel. Some areas to pay special attention to include electrical outlets, switch plates, gas pipes and electric service entry points, the inside frames of windows and doors, baseboards, dryer vents, and more. Many cracks or holes that can be seen with the naked eye are most likely a large part of the problem when it comes to energy loss. These should be addressed immediately by weatherization solutions such as weatherstripping and calking, among others.
While some homeowners even go as far as building their own pressurization tests using things like incense sticks, we highly recommend getting professional help for this procedure. Without proper training, it’s very easy to miss the smaller (and often root) causes of the problem. Even if you’re able to identify some of the issues, it’s very possible that many leaks may go undetected without professional tests and services. Tests like the blower door test really show homeowners just how much conditioned air, and energy, they are losing.
Give BelRed a call today and we can schedule an appointment to make sure your air leaks are history.
