Do you feel drafts coming from your exterior doors or, even worse, see daylight through the cracks? Well, if you do, you probably know that you need to do something about it. Air leaks around doors are easy to identify, but harder to fix. Doors are frequently opened and slammed, they often warp because of weather, and many times, sit crooked in the door opening because the house has settled or shifted. Solving this problem can be somewhat of a challenge.

Assessing your doors:
If you think your doors are leaking, you need to inspect them to find out. First, go to each of your exterior doors and look to see if the weather-stripping is in contact with the door frame. You can use a business card and try to slide it between the weather-stripping and the frame and if you feel resistance from the pressure of the weather-stripping contacting the frame, then you know you have a good seal. If the card slides freely or if you can see light through the crack in the door, then your weather-stripping needs to be replaced.

Finding the Right Solution:
If you peruse the weather-stripping options at your local hardware store you will find a variety of styles. To select the right product you need to observe the features on the door you are addressing. A door that is less than 10 years old should have a groove in the door frame in which weather-stripping can be inserted. If your door has this groove you can purchase weather-stripping that slides into this groove. For doors that don’t have this groove, the best option is weather-stripping that is mechanically fastened to your door frame with screws or nails. This type of weather-stripping should be screwed to your door frame so that it firmly contacts the door when it is shut. The third option, which is not as durable, is adhesive weather-stripping. If you choose to use adhesive, foam, weather-stripping, you will need to measure the average width of the crack between your door and the frame and select weather-stripping with the appropriate thickness.

Door Sweeps:
Air creeping under your doors can be stopped by improving your door sweep. To replace them, you will have to get out a screwdriver and back out the screws on your existing door sweep. If it is worn and needs to be replaced you can use it as a guide to buy a replacement one that matches the size of your door. You will have to adjust the door sweep until it makes contact with your threshold, creating a snug seal.

Attic Access Doors:
Often attic access doors are not well sealed. Attic doors that close over carpet instead of a proper threshold are certainly leaking air. Also, if your attic door only has a magnet holding it closed, it likely doesn’t have enough pressure to create a good seal. You can fix this problem by installing a door handle or latch that allows you to close the door and latch it, creating a tight air seal.

Properly sealed doors lower the amount of conditioned air that escapes from your home, improves your home’s comfort, and saves you energy year round.

Tags: door sweeps, drafts, Weather Stripping
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Have you ever heard of a HERS score?  Well, if not, you have probably heard of Energy Star homes.  Energy Star is simply a threshold or certificate of efficiency based on the Home Energy Rating Score (HERS).  In order for a home to be Energy Star qualified, it must have a score of 85 or less on the HERS index.

The HERS index is a rating system that takes into consideration a home’s building components, orientation, and mechanical equipment to determine its overall energy consumption.  A computer modeling software takes those building components and compares them to a reference home. The reference home represents the average efficiency of a home built to current code and it is equal to 100 on the HERS index.  Based on how efficient your home is, it will be placed on the HERS index in relation to the reference home or 100.

Each 1-point decrease in the HERS Index corresponds to a 1% reduction in energy consumption compared to the HERS Reference Home. Thus, a home with a HERS Index of 85 is 15% more energy efficient than the HERS Reference Home and a home with a HERS Index of 80 is 20% more energy efficient.  If you are looking to know where your home stands on this nationally recognized rating system or want to get an energy star certification for a new home we can provide you with the services necessary at a cost effective price.

Tags: Energy Audit, Energy Conservation, Energy Star, HERS Score
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Air sealing is one of the most highly discussed energy saving topics on the web, in the media, and by home owners across the country, and rightly so, because it has a huge impact on energy efficiency.   When you think of air sealing your home, you may envision some simple projects involving calk, weather stripping, and expandable foam.  Although this conception is partly true there is more to the puzzle than just that.

Science – A thorough understanding of the principles of science is key to understanding your home’s air leaks.  The basic fact that hot air rises controls the how, when, where, and how much of the air infiltration and exfiltration that passes through your building envelope.

Safety – In a world of cause and effect it is easy to forget that one cause can often result in multiple effects.  This is true when air sealing your home.  Improper air sealing can result in moisture problems and air quality issues that can affect both your health and the durability of your home.

Investigation – Although doors and windows often contribute to your air leakage problem they may be only a tip of the iceberg and other larger, less obvious leaks may be where the real problem lies.  Using diagnostic air leakage testing equipment such as a blower door fan system, we can determine your home’s exact air leakage volume and where those leaks occur.

Implementation – Once you are equipped with the knowledge of where your air leaks are and how to fix them safely, you are faced with what may be the largest hurdle of all: getting around to it.  For many homeowners, the last thing they want to spend their weekend doing is crawling around in their crawlspace and attic, working with sticky calks and spray foam.  If you are a do-it-yourself home owner who enjoys these kinds of home improvements we applaud you: if not we can help.

From the diagnostics to improvements, we provide a quality solution for properly air sealing your home and saving you energy.  If you have questions about this process please feel free to give us a call. 800-732-4583

Tags: Air Leakage Rate, Air leakage test, Air leaks, Air Sealing, Blower Door Test, Energy Auditing, Energy Saving Tips, Energy Savings, Home Improvements
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We often have customers contact us because their finished attic space or their bonus room over the garage is hot in the summer and cold in the winter and they usually have high energy bills as well.  Being in the business of energy efficiency and home comfort we are quick to recognize rooms with knee walls and vaulted ceilings to be classic problem spots.

- Knee Walls: These are walls that are exposed on the back side to an attic space.
- Vaulted Ceilings: These are ceilings that follow the roof line of the house making it slanted or arched.

If you have a room in your home that has either of these elements you too may have notice that it is uncomfortable, but even if you have not, chances are it is costing you money.  There are three reasons that these are such problem areas.

- Rising Hot Air: Because hot air rises and bonus rooms or finished attics are often one of the highest points in your home, they are the spot that collects the greatest amount of heat.  This heat can come from cooking, opening and closing outside doors, or simply by air leaks in the house.

- Exposed Fiberglass-Bat Insulation: Fiberglass insulation is almost always used to insulate attic knee walls.  Because the insulation is exposed on the side of the attic, outdoor temperatures can penetrate this porous material allowing it to reach the drywall and causing the room to lose its conditioned temperature.

- Attic Temperatures: During summer months direct sunlight on your roof can cause your attic to reach high temperatures.  This heat will transfer through the walls and ceilings of your bonus rooms and can make them so hot that your A/C system cannot keep up to cool them down.

The best way to see the effects of a exposed knee walls is through an infrared or thermal image.  The bright orange color in the image below shows how much heat is entering the house through this master bedroom knee wall.

Solution – There are several solutions that have proven very successful in dramatically changing the comfort of rooms with these characteristics as well as reducing energy loads year round.  Based on your specific situation, we recommend a combination of improvements to manage attic heat buildup, to improve insulation performance, and to ensure proper air movement and ventilation.   If you or anyone you know has this problem you can call us for a Free Energy Assessment to provide helpful energy saving tips and solutions to make your home more comfortable and less costly.

Tags: Attic Ventilation, Bonus Room, Energy Savings, Finished Attic, Home Comfort, Knee Walls, Vaulted Ceiling
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We are excited about launching our company blog.  This blog will be a source for helpful information on energy efficiency and the science and mechanics that effect your home every day.  Be sure to stay tuned for informative update in the weeks to come.

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