Weatherization: Making Your Home Energy Efficient

Are you interested in making your home more energy efficient?

By weatherizing your home, you could reduce your heating and cooling costs by up to 40%.

What is weatherization? Weatherization is the process of protecting your home from the elements, like cold and wind, to achieve comfort and energy efficiency.

According to the Department of Energy, a typical home has more than a half mile of gaps and cracks, allowing your hard-earned dollars to flow out around windows, doors and electrical outlets.

By following three steps: identifying air leaks in the home, sealing the air leaks, and adding extra insulation, you will be making incredible energy-saving improvements.

While it seems a simple process, it must be done right to be effective.

If all air leaks aren't found, sealed and insulated, you won't be getting the adequate results of your investment.

Our owner and Building Performance Technical Advisor are both certified by the Building Performance Institute, an organization behind the national standards for energy-saving residential reftrofit work.

Our company is also certified by Honeywell, undergoing hands-on training on the safe handling and installation of weatherization products.

We have the knowledge and the capability to help you enjoy the comfort and savings that weatherizing your home can offer.

Take a look at this recent article in which weatherization is deemed as a "win, win" situation.

The First Two Steps to Weatherizing Your Home: Finding and Sealing Air Leaks

Air leaks alone can account for an incredibly large amount of a home's energy loss.

According to Energy Star, if you add up all the hidden air leaks in your home, they can equal a hole the size of an open window. That's pretty significant.

Air leaks are typically found around or behind:

• Windows and doors
• Kneewalls
• Attic Hatches
• Wiring Holes
• Plumbing Vents
• Open Soffits
• Recessed Lights
• Furnace Flues or Duct Chaseways
• Basement Rim Joists (where the foundation meets the wood framing)

To identify and pinpoint the leaks, we perform a blower door test.

Once the leaks have been located, we seal them to keep the elements out and the conditioned air in.

By sealing these leaks, your home will be more energy efficient, will feel more comfortable, and your energy bills will be reduced.

The Third Step to Weatherizing Your Home: Adding Insulation

Adding insulation is the next important step toward making your home energy efficient.

Insulation helps keep your home warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

Because it works best when air is not moving through or around it, it is important to seal air leaks before installing insulation to insure that you get the best performance.

Many older attics are typically insulated with fiberglass batts which, in most cases, is not performing well.

For fiberglass batt insulation to perform at its rated level, it must not have any gaps or voids around it.

"Tune up" your insulation by making sure that it is snug to the ceiling surface and to the edges of the framing, then adding more insulation.

Covering the fiberglass batts in your attic with more of the same stuff "fails to restore the lost R-value" that naturally occurs with fiberglass.

Researchers have found that when you "cap" your loose-fill fiberglass with cellulose, it not only adds R-value, it actually restores the effective R-value thay fiberglass loses during cold weather.

Foam insulation is another upgrade possibility that is increasing in popularity. It is also incredibly energy efficient, resulting in up to 50% savings on home energy bills.

Contact us today for a home energy audit or an estimate for home insulation!