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
Posted in Energy Saving, General, Home Comfort, Tips & Tricks | No Comments »

A few weeks ago I heard a radio advertiser trumpeting the fact that they saved one of their customers 50% on energy by replacing their windows. And to make it even more amazing, they claimed that the windows they took out were fairly new, double pane windows. To the uninformed home owner, this ad might have seemed to be the perfect solution to saving energy. But is their claim true?

Stop for a moment and forget all the information you have heard about windows through radio, TV, and newspaper ads, and let’s start from square one and equip you with the information you need to think about windows sanely.

Real benefits of replacing your windows

1. Energy Savings – Since you have heard so much about replacement windows slashing your energy costs, let’s lay out the savings you can really expect. Windows are measured in U-values. This term can be confusing, but it simply describes the amount of heat the window conducts. U-values are the inverse of R-values which measure the amount of heat that is resisted. R-values are used to measure products like insulation. This means if you have an older home with single pane wood windows, they will have a U-value of approximately .99. Convert this into R-values and it equals R-1. If your walls are insulated with a standard R-13, then your windows are letting heat out of your house 13 times faster than your walls. Windows also lose heat because they usually leak air around the sashes. On average, windows represent an estimated 20% of a home’s overall air leaks.

So now we know windows are a big drain on energy, but how much will replacement windows save you? Let’s say that you replace your single pane wood windows with an Energy Star replacement window having a U-value of .32. You have 15 windows in your house with a combined area of 120 square feet. Using the calculation formula based on the number of heating and cooling days for a particular region we can come up with an estimated amount of savings due to better thermal characteristics. For the scenario we have laid out, we would see an annual savings of $208 from thermal improvements alone. If we also figure that the new windows result in a 75% decrease in window air leaks, that would account for an additional savings of approximately $94 bringing us to a grand total of $302 savings per year. Before you pass judgment on replacement windows let’s look at some of the other benefits.

2. Comfort – Often windows are the first thing that comes to people’s minds when they think about air leaks. Although they account for only 20% of an average home’s overall leakage, they are some of the first ones you feel. And when the wind picks up, and the weather gets cold, they can have you reaching for the nearest blanket just to stay warm. Replacing leaky windows can make a major impact on your home’s comfort. And keeping the home owner comfortable and happy is a fantastic benefit!

3. Convenience – Is washing windows a challenge? If you install new double hung windows you can select a model with a tilt-in sash feature so you can clean both sides of your windows from inside your house. This saves you the hassle of hauling out the ladder or the cost of hiring a window cleaning company.

4. Aesthetics – If you have old windows that you replace with bright, fresh new ones, I would bet my last dollar on the fact that you will have many friends and neighbors comment on how great they look. From both the inside and the outside, new windows make your home look newer and cleaner.

5. Re-sale Value – According to a 2005 survey of cost versus value done by Remodeling Magazine, replacement windows have an 89.6% return on investment. Although this figure may be less in our current housing market, replacement windows will still yield a higher price for your home, covering a good portion of the cost you invested.

So what is the return on investment for replacement windows? That question is packed with lots of variables. Based on the scenario we started with, if we figure that each window costs $425, and there are 15 of them, we have a total window replacement cost of $6,375. If we look at the return on investment strictly from an energy stand point, we divide the $6,375 by the $302 annual savings to get a ROI (return on investment) of 21 years. This number on its own is not very impressive, but when we figure that at least 70% of the cost of the windows will be recouped in the increased value of your home we can drop that ROI (return on investment) to 6.3 years. Add the additional annual savings you might see by firing your window cleaner (because you can easily clean them yourself), and you could save another $120 a year dropping your ROI (return on investment) to 4.5 years. And on top of all that, add the benefit for being more comfortable, enjoying a bright clean view, and hearing your neighbors and friends remark about how good it looks, and now you can see why it is an extremely worthwhile investment for home owners looking to achieve these goals. So next time you hear someone advertising windows that will slash your energy prices take it with a grain or two of salt.

Tags: benefits of replacement windows, Replacement Windows, Window energy savings, Window payback, Window return on investment, Window ROI
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For the past year home owners in Wilson, NC and other surrounding towns have been battling high energy cost. Jon Murawski with the News & Observer wrote an informative article cataloging the history of how the city of Wilson got themselves into this bind. Read Article Here Our company is working to reach out to the homeowners of Wilson and help them reduce their burdensome energy costs with energy improvements that have a rapid return on investment. If you live in the town of Wilson or know someone who does contact us to find out more about our special discount for home owners in Wilson, NC

Public Library in a town plagued with high energy bills Wilson, NC

Posted in Energy Saving, High Energy Rates, NC, Tips & Tricks, Wilson | No Comments »