Building Science
The example to the above displays a typical home, with the common areas of air leakage. Most homes were built at a time when heating costs were not a concern. Because of this, homes were not built airtight or with proper insulation.
Air Sealing: While most people know of insulation and how important it is, many have not heard of something that is just as important, air sealing. If your home is drafty, or just colder on windy days, air sealing will be of great help. Any conditioned air that leaves the home must be replaced by unconditioned air from the outside. While some airflow is necessary, many homes have 2-5 times the airflow needed. To put it simply, most people spend money to heat or cool air that simply leaves the house.
Duct Sealing: In addition to air sealing the home, duct sealing central ac and forced air heating systems is also something that needs to be looked into. Even though many systems were installed correctly at the time, duct tape commonly loses it’s ability to seal ductwork connections. This causes ductwork to leak conditioned air into unconditioned spaces that the ductwork is often in. According to ENERGY STAR® , in a typical home about 20% of the air is lost due to leaks, holes, and poorly connected ducts. Proper duct sealing can not only help reduce the cost of running your system by up to 20%, but it can help keep rooms more comfortable.
Insulation: Not enough, or poor insulation is a common problem, in the photo above, while there is insulation, the attic insulation is far from sufficient to create a thermal boundary in order to keep the heat out in the summer and in during the winter. This low thermal boundary cause’s heat to enter or escape at a fast pace, causing heating and cooling systems to cycle on more and longer than they should.
Lighting: Lighting is a large portion of a household’s electric bill, compact fluorescent lights (CFL’s), use 75% less energy than the common incandescent bulb.
Appliances: A typical home does not have ENERGY STAR rated appliances. These appliances commonly cost 10% more than a standard appliance, yet they use 10%-37% less energy to run. While many chose to “save” money upfront by purchasing a less expensive model, many who buy ENERGY STAR rated appliances make their money back in the first year in energy savings.
