Sealed Air Leaks

Highlights

Have a professional seal your home's air leaks. Typically, this reduces air leakage by 25%.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) estimates that air leakage accounts for up to 10 percent of a homeowner’s annual energy bill, or about $70 per year for an average U.S. household. Your top priorities are sealing the attic, then basement, followed by windows, doors, vents, electrical sockets, and anywhere else air is escaping.

To help find leaks, hire a professional to pinpoint them with a blower door test or infrared technology. If you properly seal your house in addition to insulation, you may even be able to downsize your heating and cooling systems.

The ROI Calculation is based on using a professional service provider, and savings of $15 a month over the course of the year. If you take the time to find and seal the air leaks yourself, the ROI naturally goes up.

DIY Tips

If you are having difficulty locating leaks, you may want to conduct a basic building pressurization test: First, close all exterior doors, windows, and fireplace flues. Turn off all combustion appliances such as gas burning furnaces and water heaters. Then turn on all exhaust fans (generally located in the kitchen and bathrooms) or use a large window fan to suck the air out of the rooms. This test increases infiltration through cracks and leaks, making them easier to detect. You can use incense sticks or your damp hand to locate these leaks. If you use incense sticks, moving air will cause the smoke to waver, and if you use your damp hand, any drafts will feel cool to your hand.

• Close the Damper - Shut the damper on your wood burning fire place in the winter to restrict the warm air from leaving your home. Naturally, open it if you use the fireplace!
• Lock the Windows (Summer & Winter) - Reduce air leakage, secure on casement windows and the horizontal space between the upper and lower sash on double hand windows.

Good to Know

Naturally, homes with major window deterioration may cost more to seal. For DIY home improvement look for air leakage in the most common areas: Window frames, Baseboards, Weather stripping around doors, Fireplace dampers, Attic hatches, and Wall- or window-mounted air conditioners. Plus all of the little things add up. Electrical outlets and Switch plates often leak air even though you may not feel it, because the insulation does not hug the junction box in the wall. Foam backers are cost effective and take just a minute to put in by unscrewing the cover plate.

Attic Entrances - Any attic entrance, whether a pull down ladder, push up hatch, knee wall panel or permanent staircase is a big source of air leakage at exactly the right high point in your house to waste $50 to $250 a year of your heating and cooling costs. Because they are made of drywall or plywood, they will inevitably warp over time making the air leakage even greater. That causes more energy loss in both summer and winter and also causes uncomfortable drafts on cold windy days. You need a long lasting air seal that can withstand the wear of someone entering the attic. Kits for knee walls and hatches are less than $150 and ladder covers are under $225 and less than $300 for staircases, but the savings come in just a couple of years it not less. See the range of attic entrance products Click Here - Enter promo code: GreenandSave to save 10%.

Doors and Windows - If you can see daylight around a door or window frame or if you can 'rattle' them, since movement means possible leaks, then they need attention. You can usually seal these leaks by caulking or weather stripping them. If there are not vestibules or a mud room to serve as air locks, then storm doors can help reduce infiltration. Effective storm doors could save $50 or more in utility bills each year, but well made solid core doors that have a frame that will not warp can cost over $1,000. Beware of the cheaper versions for a few hundred dollars since they can bend and lose their energy saving value in just a few years.

Top Sealing Fireplace Damper - Fireplace dampers are typically built-in just above the fire 'box' and they leave room for warm air to leak and rise up and out of your house even when they are closed. Since the metal plates touch each other but do not restrict all of the air, you can get a much tighter sealing damper up on the top of your chimney that has a pull chain running down for operation. The units also come with fusible links as an advantage if there is a chimney fire. Of the $275 Added cost the hardware itself is about $125.

Front Sealing Fireplace Glass Doors - To keep the warm air from leaking up and out of your home, you can install a glass door system, and just make sure to keep the doors closed when it is not in use in the winter.

Air ‘Back Draft’ Safety - When sealing any home, you must always be aware of the danger of indoor air pollution and combustion appliance "back drafts." Back drafting is when the various combustion appliances and exhaust fans in the home compete for air. An exhaust fan may pull the combustion gases back into the living space. This can obviously create a very dangerous and unhealthy situation in the home. In homes where a fuel is burned (i.e., natural gas, fuel oil, propane, or wood) for heating, be certain the appliance has an adequate air supply. Generally, one square inch of vent opening is required for each 1,000 BTU of appliance input heat. When in doubt, contact your local utility company or energy professional.

SAFETY! SAFETY SAFETY! After air sealing, be sure to have a professional check your home’s ventilation and test combustion appliances to be sure they are properly venting. Your family’s life literally depends on it. To get sense of the complexity of the Combustion Safety Testing process.

Rubber weatherseal is typically guaranteed for 5 to 10 years vs. the slightly less expensive vinyl that may only lasts three years. Go with rubber, and make sure that you consider unexpected locations like the perimeter of an attic access panel.

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