Cooling your house during the hot, muggy months of summer is a necessary expense, but if your home has excessive air leaks, you’re spending more than you need to. Through the years, tiny cracks and holes in your home’s envelope can develop and create major energy waste. In addition to reducing your comfort levels, air leaks will raise your cooling and heating costs, place extra strain on your HVAC equipment, and even cause humidity control problems. To help you avoid stress and overspending, here’s a guide to detecting leaks and air sealing your home.
Recognizing an Air Leak
Before you can seal the leaks, you have to be able to recognize and locate them. Among the more common trouble spots are the areas around doors and windows. You might notice a draft around these locations, or that dust is being drawn in from outdoors and settling on the frames. In addition to this, you should inspect the following areas for air leaks: electrical outlets, light-switch plates, baseboards, foundation walls, spaces around wall or window unit air conditioners, foundation walls, and places where dryer vents, plumbing and electrical wiring pass through the walls. Walk the perimeter of your home in order to thoroughly check these spots for cracks, gaps or holes that could reduce home efficiency. Doing this from the inside with a stick of incense will show you where air is leaking or infiltrating (wherever the smoke wavers).
Sealing Air Leaks
The three most common methods of sealing air leaks are:
- Caulk – Caulking is best for sealing leaks in stationary building components. As a rule, caulk should only be used for cracks and gaps up to a quarter inch. For best results, you should apply the chalk to a clean, dry surface at a 45-degree angle.
- Expanding spray foam – Use this for gaps in stationary building components that are too big for caulking effectively.
- Weatherstripping – Weatherstripping should be used to seal leaks on moveable components such as doors and window sashes. To avoid waste, measure carefully before applying to a clean and dry surface. Make sure that you fit the weatherstripping snugly against the air leak.
With any of these strategies, you’ll want to pick the right material for the purpose at hand. Packaging on caulk, spray foam and weatherstripping products should make this clear.
To have a professional evaluate your home for air leaks, contact the experts at Marsh Heating & Air Conditioning. We’re proud to meet the heating and cooling needs of customers throughout the Twin Cities area.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about air leaks and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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