Making Your Home More Energy Efficient

Among the easiest and low cost ways to make your home energy efficient is to seal up cold leaks in your home. If you are wanting to go green and you don't know where to start, this is a good place.

Common leak culprits include: Heat loss through gaps between siding and eaves, cracks at the corner of siding, poorly insulated walls and/or roof, cracks where wood structure meets foundation, gaps in the masonry such as the chimney, unfinished or uninsulated walls between the garage and the house, poorly caulked areas such as wires, water taps or cables, gaps in door frame or siding of doors, heat loss through glass, windows that do not shut completely, drafty windows, cracked panes.

Every house has its share of cracks where air from the outdoors can come in and indoor air can escape. This means that you are paying more than you have to when you heat - or cool, your home. Some of the places are obvious. You feel a draft at the window or door. Others may be a little harder to find. There is an effective diagnostic tool to find them all at once - A Thermograph. A thermograph is a type of infrared photograph that will show you the temperatures in a range of colors. You would need to hire a professional to do this for you. When the image is created you will be able to see colored areas where heat is being lost. Some companies may even offer a before and after thermograph free of charge with their services.

Depending on your skills you may be able to do some of the work yourself. Caulking is not terribly difficult and is an effective way to seal up some obvious leaks.

Double (or triple) paned glass will reduce heat loss in the windows. Or you can fit storm windows over existing windows. These work by creating a layer of air between panes of glass that acts as an insulation. For best results, windows should fit tightly and joints should be weather proofed.

You can also add shutters to your windows. Wood shutters that open and close are a natural insulator. Open them during the day to let in the warm sunlight and close them at night to keep it warm and cozy and to reduce drafts.

Insulation come in batts or blankets or loose fill and pumped in foam. Crawl spaces can be insulated with batts or blankets. The same can be done for attic floors. It is not difficult for an able-bodied person to do their own insulation work. For harder to reach areas, loose fill or pumped foam are easier to use. If you cannot do this work yourself, you can hire an experienced contractor to do it for you.

Insulating pipes, ducts and your water heater will save you from wasting fuel all year long.

To insulate your water heater: Use 2 inch thick fiberglass insulating material with a vinyl coating. Wrap the entire water heater except the bottom controls. Complete water heater insulation kits are available for purchase. They can be easily slipped on, then trimmed to size.

To insulate ducts: First seal leaky areas of AC ducts or heating ducts with aluminum tape or silicon caulk. Then cover the ducts with blanket type fiberglass or similar insulation materials.

To insulate hot water pipes: Wrap pipes with ½ inch thick fiberglass and seal with plastic tape or just use ready to use foam style insulation. Insulation also helps prevent pipes from freezing. If used in summer the insulation stops the pipes from sweating and keeps water cool.

Consider adding Vestibule to your home. Building a vestibule with do a few positive things for your home. For one thing, the additional square feet will add value to your home. It will also cut your energy costs because it creates a barrier from your home and the outdoors. This helps reduce the outdoor air coming into your home. This helps your energy bill stay low. It also provides a useful place to put shoes, coats or old toys. Adding a bench with a storage compartment inside your vestibule will add a nice decorative and useful touch.

Planting trees around your home will help keep your energy bill low and provide fresh air year round. The idea is that the trees break the wind so that your house is not getting blown and therefore, decreasing any wind chill factor. Wind chill is a term for a few things including air pressure, evaporative cooling, condensation that together can cause a chill inside your house. If your house is fully unprotected from the wind you can expect to experience a drop in temperature. Planting some trees is an easy fix. Plant your trees far enough from your home so that the root system does not touch the foundation. A row of shrubs on the inside of the trees will break wind that is blowing from under the canopy of the tree. A fence is another thing that can double as a wind break.

I'm so glad that you are considering going green. It doesn't have to be expensive and it doesn't have to be difficult to turn your house into an energy saving home! Thank you for reading.

Sources:

Wage the Energy War at Home by Joseph C Walker and Claxton Walker

Energy Efficient Windows - US Deptartment of Energy

Guide to Making Energy -Smart Purchases. US Department of Energy

Tomorrows Energy Today, U.S. Department of Energy