Improving your home’s envelope has many merits, including energy savings and comfort. If you want to slash a few dollars off your utility bill each month, learn ways to tighten your home’s exterior shell and make your private space more energy-efficient.
Contents
1. Understand Your Home’s Thermal Envelope
Your home’s envelope is the barrier that blankets your interior from outside weather, keeping the indoor temperature up to your desired comfort. It mainly includes your windows, doors, roof and walls. In times of harsh weather — like summer — it keeps hot air out and prevents conditioned air from escaping. Its construction can affect your energy usage.
The envelope affects 28% of building energy use in commercial and residential spaces. Poorly sealed frames can lead to energy wastage, but this is avoidable. One way is through retrofitting. A retrofit in the form of energy-efficient insulation is the best way to boost your home’s envelope and keep it airtight.
2. Conduct an Energy Audit
You can’t talk about thermal envelopes without bringing up leaks. Those tiny cracks on your doors and floors are like vacuums that suck conditioned air out, racking up your utility bill. The good news, however, is you can do an energy diagnostic test to gauge how tight your home envelope is. Here are some tips.
Check for Indoor Leaks
Find those gaps on the edges of the flooring or along the baseboards. Look for any tiny openings at the junctures of the ceilings and walls.
Move Outside
Look at the space where two building components meet, like the wall and the window — there are often fissures that are easy to overlook. Then, check the windows, doors and roofs. If you’re having visual difficulties, use a thermal camera or a Smoke Pencil kit to locate those air leaks.
List Obvious Air Drafts
Create a list of any gaps you find. You can use it as a reference to relocate them when you start closing them up.
3. Seal Air Leaks
You can save an average of 15% on heating and cooling costs by sealing and insulating your home. If you want to avoid paying a pretty penny for utilities, sealing those cracks is a huge help in keeping your energy expenditures economical.
Benefits of Sealing
Besides massive savings, here are the upsides of enclosing visible gaps in your home’s shell.
- Improved and consistent comfort: Sealing those energy stealers properly can reduce the amount of moisture, noise and unconditioned air infiltrating your home. In addition, air can evenly circulate throughout the space, minimizing the temperature differences between rooms for more stable comfort.
- Minimized condensation problems: During hot weather, moisture can enter through those tiny gaps and seep into the wall crevices, resulting in mold or mildew issues that damage the insulation and framing. The same thing can happen during winter when moisture condenses on cold surfaces and causes structural damage. Sealing can prevent this.
- Better indoor air quality: Outdoor air carries pollutants and irritants that can enter your living space through cracks. A tight home envelope ensures outside air stays where it should be.
If you have family members with respiratory conditions or who are prone to allergies, tightening your envelope minimizes the risk of contaminants affecting them.
Types of Sealing Materials
Homeowners often use these materials to repair weak areas in their doors, windows and floors.
Weatherstripping
Weatherstripping is a versatile material that fills the gaps in movable home parts, like windows and doors. It comes in rolled vinyl, reinforced foam, silicone and other materials. Many homeowners opt for foam tape because it’s easy to install — just trace the gap with tape, and you should be good to go.
Caulking
Caulking is a waterproof filler that closes the joints of interior and exterior trims and around plumbing fixtures. Options include silicone, latex and acrylic.
Caulking is easy. Cut the tip of the container, insert the caulk into a gun and position the top above the indentation point, trailing the cracked line to close the gap. In addition to sealing, caulking can prevent water from infiltrating a home.
Expanding Foam
Expanding foam is an insulation powerhouse and versatile material that closes the indoor voids that increase your bill. When applied, it expands to form an airtight sealant. Spraying it on a wobbly shower head can firm it up and close the hole around it. Foam is also the go-to solution for stuffing slits or crevices around doors and windows.
Sealing those gaps doesn’t require professional skill. Look for tutorials online, or follow the instructions on the product’s label.
4. Insulate Effectively
Besides using sealant, insulation can boost your home’s weather resistance. Here are the main areas that require it, plus some tips to insulate effectively.
Garage Door
Reinforcing your garage door can help stabilize the indoor temperature and is crucial if your garage connects to the living area. During winter, an insulated door can keep a garage 10 to 14 degrees warmer than the outside temperature — and keep the temperature as high as 22 to 26 degrees cooler in the summer. It reduces the load on your HVAC system while making your home energy-efficient.
You can choose between polystyrene and polyurethane for insulation. The former is a more cost-effective option, while the latter comes with added expenses but is denser, providing the extra benefit of minimizing noise.
If the door is too worn out to be insulated, replacing it with a wooden or steel enclosure is the best way to go. These materials may initially cost more, but you can expect up to a 102.7% return on investment in home resale value for garage door upgrades.
Attic
Conditioned air can escape through the attic. This space is often unfinished, so adding insulation won’t entail opening any walls if this is true for your home. Spray foam on exposed areas under the roof, or use insulation rolls.
Plumbing Pipes
Water can turn into ice inside the pipes when the outside temperature reaches at least 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Wrap those pipes in foam or rubber to keep the water from turning solid, and do the same to your irrigation pipe.
Crawl Space
If your main complaint during winter is cold floors, your crawl space needs insulation. Foam boards are an ideal material for shielding crawl spaces made of concrete or cinder block walls. Alternatively, use fiberglass batt to pad the sub-floor. It will help neutralize cold air in the space and prevent it from moving to the living area.
HVAC Ducts
Cracked ducts are an overlooked source of energy loss. To insulate them, reseal any tube openings or replace tubing if needed. Duct tape is the easiest trick for fixing holes. If that doesn’t work, use duct mastic sealant or Aeroseal.
Recessed Lighting
The gaps in your lighting fixtures can contribute to a rising utility bill. Seal them with caulk to stop air leaks.
Insulating your lighting and other areas of your home is necessary to reinforce its external frame and prevent structural damage. You can do it yourself or hire a contractor if you’re too busy for a weekend DIY project.
Aim for an Energy-Efficient Home
You have several reasons to make your abode energy-efficient. It optimizes your energy usage, which translates to significant savings. It’s eco-friendly since less electricity use equals fewer emissions. And most importantly, high-quality indoor air is good for your health. If you have extra time and want to tackle a DIY home remodel, prepare your tools and start sealing those cracks.