There are many steps you can take to prepare your home for the winter season, but one of the most beneficial and cost-effective ways is to plug all of the air leaks in the home’s interior and exterior. Most people don’t realize how much energy they are wasting each year due to these small air leaks.
You might think that a small hole in your siding, the size of a pencil eraser, couldn’t result in significant energy loss, but it can and will. Energy experts claim that the average home in the United States has enough of these small holes that, when compounded, will add up to a nine square foot hole in the home’s exterior. In other words, it is like having a three by three foot hole in your wall that is open year around: spring, summer, winter and fall.
One of the best ways to determine where your leaks are is to inpect your home on a windy day. With the help of a lighted incense stick, move around the home’s interior and check and common places such as around electrical outlet covers, recessed lighting fixtures, doors, windows, baseboards, and even cracks in the dry wall. The smoke from the burning incense stick will make it easy to determine where exactly the air is entering the house. As you move through your house checking for drafts, be sure to keep notes as to where they are so that you can easily return to seal them.
Now that you have found all of the areas where air is entering the house, the next thing to do is start sealing the leaks. Leaks around doors can usually be addressed with very little effort, by even the least experienced do-it-your-selfer. Simply purchase and install weather stripping around your door and install door sweeps.
As for windows, if they are older, single-pane windows, there will be very little you can do to to seal out the leaks, so you might consider installing new vinyl replacement windows or storm windows. When you take into consideration how much energy you are wasting with older windows, new replacements or storms can pay for themselves quickly. If you can’t afford to make these types of window improvements right now, there are other solutions that will stop the problem, temporarily, such as wrapping your windows in plastic. You can buy these window wrapping kits at nearly every hardware store and/or department store. These plastic window films are very easy to install and well worth the effort.
As for drafty electrical outlets, rubber gaskets can be purchased at your local hardware store and installed between the wall and electrical cover.
Most other leaks around the home can be taken care of with a simple caulking gun and a few tubes of any type of weather resistant caulking. If the area that requires sealing is concrete, brick, or block, be sure to use a masonary sealer. Masonary sealer can also be found at your local hardware store and comes in tubes just like caulking.
Profixes Home Repair. Providing Home Repairs and Improvements to the New River Valley