During this time of year, we become aware of the elements when cold winds try to make their way into our homes and our heat escapes outside. We also feel the coming of winter in our wallets, as we have to devote more of our money to staying comfortable inside. Increasing our heating efficiency is one way we can keep our household heat and our money where it belongs. Our home energy use can be broken down into three categories: space heating, water heating, and appliances. In most homes, there is the possibility to make improvements in all three categories.

Steps toward efficiency are one of the greatest investments you can make in your home with returns of 100-200 percent on that investment.
Space heating is the largest users of energy in our homes, taking up to two-thirds of our energy dollars. There are two concerns when it comes to increasing space-heating efficiency: increase the efficiency of production/delivery, and increase the ability of the home to hold that energy. Maintain your heating equipment regularly. Change the filters in systems that move air. Find out and follow the manufacturers’ recommendations for maintenance and servicing. Make sure the ductwork is performing properly. Are all the joints well sealed? All the pipe connections in your ductwork should be sealed with mastic or another paste-type sealer. Faulty ductwork can waste up to thirty percent of the hot air the system produces, not to mention the air quality issues that can be created when ducting is not properly connected or sealed.

After you have inspected your heating equipment and ductwork, it’s time to button up the house. Once we produce the warm air, we want to keep it in the house. In the average American home there are enough cracks and holes in the building to add up to a hole that is one foot by three feet wide, basically the equivalent of a window being open all winter! First, imagine the house as an envelope. Buttoning up the house means sealing all the unauthorized holes in the building envelope. We like windows and doors but don’t like holes between us and the attic or crawlspace.

Sealing holes can be an inexpensive and fun activity. Arm yourself with some rigid foam insulation (one is commonly known as “blue board”), a few cans of spray foam, gloves, and work cloths. Start in the basement or crawlspace. Look for penetrations in the building envelope such as where wiring, plumbing and ductwork go up. If you have to remove fiberglass insulation, be sure to wear a dust mask. Use the spray foam to fill holes smaller than a few inches. For larger holes, use the spray foam to glue the rigid insulation in place. Check under bathtubs and showers as well; many times there’s a large hole in the flooring. Be sure to seal any cracks in the foundation wall as well. Put a seal around basement and crawlspace doors using weather stripping.

The next stop will be the attic. Keep the same goal you had under the house: seal the holes in the building envelope. Once again, look for wiring and duct penetrations. Other possible penetrations in the ceiling are chimneys, bathroom vents, recessed lighting, whole house attic fans, and skylights, to name a few. Make sure these openings in the envelope are sealed. Insulate where needed, but be sure not to insulate over recessed lighting. Most recessed lights are not rated insulation coverage. It is usually easy to add attic insulation, and it is more cost effective to add insulation to the attic than anywhere else in the home.

The final place to seal holes in the envelope is in the exterior walls. The largest holes are our windows and doors. Many of us have inferior windows in our home. Replacing windows is costly, and on average only ten percent of the energy we waste goes through leaky windows. Since thirty percent of the energy we waste goes out of the rest of the envelope, before spending big money to replace windows, seal your envelope. To make your windows and doors more efficient, spend some time weather stripping around the openings; this will greatly reduce the amount of drafts. Adding storm doors and windows also helps dramatically to reduce the amount of air and energy that escape.

What are the other holes in our exterior walls? Some are vent fans, utilities like the phone or cable wires, and dryer vents. Holes do not have to go all the way through the wall to be considered a hole in the envelope, however. Electric boxes in the exterior wall are a major source of air leakage in many homes. It’s easy to seal switches and receptacle boxes by placing inexpensive foam gaskets under the cover plates. The gaskets can be found in the weather stripping section of the hardware store. Spray foam and caulk can seal any other wall penetrations.

The second largest consumer of energy in our homes is water heating. Once again, measures toward efficiency can give us up to a forty percent savings! Saving water helps us two-fold: we use less water and less energy to heat that water. Some water-saving techniques are to use low-flow showerheads, sink aerators in kitchen and bathroom sinks, avoid leaving water running when not in use, and have landscaping that doesn’t require irrigation or water your lawn or garden in the evening. Saving energy for heating water is done with insulation. Most of us have a water heater that has a tank. Insulating the tank can make the water heater at least twenty percent more efficient. Insulation kits can be purchased at the hardware store, or common fiberglass insulation can be taped around the tank. Insulate all the hot water pipes that are accessible as well. The piping closest to the tank is especially important.

Appliances, which are the third major user of energy in our homes, are becoming more and more efficient theses days. Currently, all new appliances have an Energy Guide tag. This tells us how much energy the appliance will use compared to others like it and how much we can expect it to cost us a year. Use this information to make wise energy decisions when buying new appliances. Maintenance is the best defense we have for existing appliances, especially the refrigerator. Make sure the coils at the back of the fridge are clean and air can flow around them. Vacuum the fins that are under the fridge as well.

A few simple steps can go along way in the spirit of energy efficiency. There are many ways you can learn more, such as the book, Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings or the website www.southface.org.

Marcus Renner is project manager for Appropriate Building Solutions, Inc. and sustainable construction company, and he teaches Sustainable Building Design and Construction at Appalachian State University. He can be reached at 828-350-0451 or abs@buildsustainable.com

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