Each time we feel cold draft near the windows, we actually let our money flies off the windows. Every little bit of energy we need to heat up the interior of our require money. This also applies to air conditioning in the summer, because cold air may escape through the windows, undetected and unseen. This will result in an even higher utility bill. If the winter or summer is around the corner, we should make sure that our house is well insulated. It is important to weatherize our home, so it could be energy efficient both in summer and winter. We should create a type of shell that protects the interior of our house.
Insulation components are essential to make sure that our house is energy efficient. It is also important to make sure that the humidity level of our house remains at an acceptable level. This is related to the air quality that our family is breathing in. If there are breaches on the tightly designed seal, moisture, air and heat may pass through and some amount of energy can leave at different parts of our house. Doors and windows represent about a third of the total heat loss of our house. Energy may leak out from different areas of our house, such as exhaust fans, recessed lights, baseboard molding, attic access hatches, fireplace dampers and others.
In general, this could be the time for energy audit. We should do the right thing to stop any kind of energy loss. However, energy audits should be performed by real professionals who can check many of the details in the checklist. These professionals should be able to uncover many areas of energy losses. Some utility companies could provide free or low-cost energy audits at our house, especially because they also want to reduce energy waste during peak hours. In this case, we should ask the utility company and other professionals whether we are eligible for such service.
If there’s no available energy audit service in the area, we should be able to perform visual inspections of our house. So much energy can be lost through the windows. This may require a couple people to do. Our tool could be as simple as standard hair dryer. We could ask one person to go inside the house and point the hair dryer through the side of the windows and doors. If we feel the warm air blowing through the cracks, then we have insulation problem in our house. Often, the solution is as simple as adding seals at different parts of the doors and windows. Any holes and cracks could be closed with sealants.
Weatherizing our house shouldn’t cost a lot of money. In many cases, we should be able to many kinds of repairs ourselves. The most economical and fastest solutions is by sealing all the cracks and edges with caulk. Another quick way is by weatherstripping the whole area of our house to make sure that everything is properly sealed.