Heating your home during the winter gets expensive. By cutting down on heat loss, you can keep your family nice and cozy without compromising your bank account.
Is Your Home Efficient?
You know your home is efficient when your family stays comfortable through all seasons and your utility bill is reasonable for your area. If your heating bill is too high, one of the problems could be heat loss. There are several things you can do to prevent this, including energy audits, new windows, and doors, sealing air leaks, and installing insulation.
Energy Audits
All homes should have an energy audit performed before you do anything else. Energy audits check for air leaks around baseboards, walls, doors, windows, and ceilings. They also check to see if insulation is adequate and if lighting and appliances are energy efficient.
You can perform energy audits yourself, but they are best done by a professional.
Windows and Doors
Another common place to lose heat is your windows and doors. Windows that have cracked or rotted sills and sashes, cracked glass and doors that don’t close can be responsible for up to a quarter of your home’s heat loss. If you have any of these problems, upgrading to new windows and doors will be much more efficient.
Air Leaks
Finding all the air leaks in your home can be time consuming, but it can also be a huge factor in cutting down on heat loss. Check for air leaks around:
- Attic doors
- Attic hatches
- Chimneys
- Plumbing entry points in ceilings and floors
- Wiring entry points
- Electrical outlets
- Electrical light switches
- Doors
- Windows
- Baseboards
Once you find the air leaks, use caulk, expanding foam or rigid foam insulation to seal them.
Insulation
Check your attic for insulation. Insulation ages over time and sometimes needs replacing or upgrading. Attics need an average of one foot of insulation.
Cut Down on Heat Loss
Save money by making your home more efficient. Either do an energy audit yourself or hire a professional from Wolff Mechanical. Contact us today and we’ll show you how to start saving money.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Phoenix Valley area of Arizona about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).
