Much of the housing stock in the Twin Cities is decades old, and if you’re lucky enough to live in an older home, you may worry about how improving energy efficiency will impact the vintage character of your older home. The good news is that older homes can be energy efficient without sacrificing their old-time charm.
There are some aspects of an older home that actually make it more amenable to saving energy. These homes typically were built with longevity in mind, both in design and materials. They often feature thicker walls, ample ventilation, awnings and porches for shade, light-reflecting finishes, and easy-to-use windows and shutters. At a time when neither air conditioning nor high-efficiency heating was available or common, these homes often employed manual or passive features that aided in heating, cooling and ventilation.
But as you know, these homes also tend to be drafty. Crafting an airtight home wasn’t a priority for builders at a time when energy costs were cheap and a home could be heated for a few dollars a month. Over the decades, existing air leaks tend to get worse without proactive steps by the homeowner. You can find many of these points of air filtration by walking the interior perimeter of your older home with a lighted incense stick. Watch for spots where the smoke wavers, exposing air leaks. Common locations are windows and doors, entry points for wiring, plumbing and vents, and spots where building materials meet. You can seal many of these leaks yourself with caulk, spray foam or weatherstripping, depending on the situation.
Older homes also may lack proper or sufficient insulation, a problem that’s neither difficult nor expensive to rectify. With air sealing and more insulation, an older home can be energy efficient without a high cost or damage to the structure.
Besides fixing the air leaks and increasing insulation, have an HVAC contractor help you modernize your heating and cooling equipment so that your older home can be energy efficient. If you’d like to learn more, please contact us at Marsh Heating & Air Conditioning. We’ve provided superior HVAC services for the Twin Cities since 1974.
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 energy efficiency and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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