Photo: That Canadian Grrl
With summer winding down, I find myself thinking more about what I would like to do to the house before winter. You know, the things I probably should have worked on during the summer, but it was just too nice out. In my case, I am mostly interested in sealing up the house. Being as old as it is, it leaks pretty badly.
Air infiltration is a huge source of heat loss. Many articles say 30% or more of a home’s heat loss can be from air infiltration. Just imagine being able to reduce your heating bill by 30%! The good thing about air leaks though is that they are fairly easy and cheap to fix. So, today we have a list of five great resources on home sealing. These are the same articles I am using to do the work on my own house.
Energy Star’s DIY Guide to Sealing and Insulating
A great reference that covers all of the major things to seal on your house and how to insulate properly. It is packed full of pictures describing how to do what the article explains.
EEBA’s Home Energy Checklist
A great overall checklist to go through with your house to ensure energy efficiency. It also has some very informative breakouts that explain common myths about energy efficiency.
DOE’s Air Sealing Guide hosted by BuildItSolar.com
A quick guide on sealing. It not only outlines how to seal an existing house, but how to seal while building a structure as well.
Lowes – Home Sealing Product Guide
Lowes actualy has a fairly decent and quick chart on what sealing materials are avaliable and what to use where. They also have a nice guide for what caulk to use where.
DIY Air Pressure Test
This is an essential part of locating where the air leaks are coming from. Without doing this, you’re just shooting in the dark.
After reading these resources, you should be quite capable of sealing up your house. Good luck!
We would love to hear about your progress, so please feel free to stop over at the forum and tell us how it goes.
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