AIR INFILTRATION
Michael Holigan: Locks keep your family safe from intruders, but you need a different kind of lock to keep your home safe from high energy bills - a set of locks that keeps the outside air from seeping in and the inside air from creeping out. In most houses there's air moving through half a mile of cracks and crevices. That's like having a window open all year long. This blower door test shows us how much air is escaping from the home.
Craig Smith: We come in and set up the blower door into an exterior door. We insert into it a fan which is capable of inserting air into the house at a fixed rate. By the RPM's of that fan we understand exactly how much pressure is coming into the house. By then shutting everything, all the exterior doors and windows and so forth, we can tell you just exactly how much air is going out of that house.
MH: The blower door test pinpoints the trouble spots.
CS: And once the house is pressured up we take smoke sticks and go around to all the areas that we've found to be common air infiltration areas. As we'll show you, the fireplace you'll see the air going out with the smoke stick as the door's pressured up the house.
MH: Air often leaks around windows and doors too. In all, up to 40% of your utility bills is being wasted by leaks in your home. High-tech thermal imaging is another way to reveal the places where you're throwing money out the window and there are plenty in a typical home.
Tim Slattery: It's a black and white scan and what it's going to do is it's going to depict the hot spots or the failures within the different portions of the house.
MH: Real obvious now. Looks like we have lights on in different parts of the house.
TS: Exactly.
MH: But it's no lights. It's actual heat.
TS: Actually, what you're seeing is you're seeing where the heat is migrating out from the interior portion of the house.
MH: You can see the heat escaping where the window frames join the walls. And take a look along the eaves. That's where heat builds up in the attic and creeps out through any weak areas in the roof. Even this brick wall shows signs of leaking air. It's probably not insulated or the old insulation has settled in the wall. Once you locate where the air is coming in and out of your home you want to fix it right away and start slashing those utility bills. And here's the good news - you can usually do it very inexpensively. Fill gaps around windows with caulking. Weather-strip your exterior doors. Also, keep your fireplace flue shut when you're not using it. And try these - rubber electrical gaskets. They prevent air from wafting in through outlets on exterior walls. There's even a better way to make sure that you have low utility costs. Make your home energy efficient when you build it. This great product is called HomeWrap and it actually protects your house from the heat and cold just as you protect yourself outside. Wind pushes through cracks and gaps in most traditional insulation like it rushes through one of your sweaters. HomeWrap is like a windbreaker over that sweater. It cuts the amount of air entering your home by as much as 60%. Another great HomeWrap feature - it let's moisture escape from inside your home while keeping external moisture out. Another new option is an insulation called Icynene. Instead of the traditional layer of cellulose or pink fiberglass this insulation is a foam sprayed or injected into cavities. It expands filling every nook and cranny. It then hardens minutes later. It really keeps the outside air where it should be - outside.
Graeme Kirkland: Well, the big difference between Icynene and fiberglass is that Icynene is very low air permeance. Air cannot blow through it. Whereas with fiberglass it's very easy for air to blow through. So, what Icynene does is seal up the building, something that fiberglass cannot do.
MH: Whether you start from scratch with HomeWrap and insulation or you weather-strip and caulk any of the cracks in your existing home they're all super ways to make your home as energy efficient as possible and keep out the heat of summer and the cool of winter.
Episode 60 1997 - 98 Season
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