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Imagine leaving a window open
all winter long -- the heat loss, cold drafts and wasted
energy! If your home has a folding attic stair, fireplace
or clothes dryer, that may be just what is occurring in
your home every day.
These often overlooked
sources of heat loss and air leakage can cause heat to
pour out and the cold outside air to rush in -- costing
you higher heating bills.
Air leaks are the largest
source of heating and cooling loss in the home. Air leaks
occur through the small cracks around doors, windows,
pipes, etc. Most homeowners are well aware of the benefits
caulk and weatherstripping provide to minimize heat loss
and cold drafts.
But what can you do about
the three largest “holes” in your home -- the folding
attic stair, the fireplace and the clothes dryer? Here are
some tips and techniques that can easily, quickly and
inexpensively seal and insulate these holes.
Attic Stairs
When attic stairs are
installed, a large hole (approximately 10 square feet) is
created in your ceiling. The ceiling and insulation that
were there have to be removed, leaving only a thin,
unsealed, sheet of plywood.
Your attic space is
ventilated directly to the outdoors. In the winter, the
attic space can be very cold, and in the summer it can be
very hot. And what is separating your conditioned house
from your unconditioned attic? That thin sheet of plywood.
Often a gap can be observed
around the perimeter of the door. Try this yourself: at
night, turn on the attic light and shut the attic stairway
door -- do you see any light coming through? These are
gaps add up to a large opening where your heated/cooled
air leaks out 24 hours a day. This is like leaving a
window open all year round.
An easy, low-cost solution
to this problem is to add an attic stair cover. An attic
stair cover provides an air seal, reducing the air leaks.
Add the desired amount of insulation over the cover to
restore the insulation removed from the ceiling.
Fireplaces
Sixty-five percent, or
approximately 100 million homes, in North America are
constructed with wood or gas burning fireplaces.
Unfortunately there are negative side effects that the
fireplace brings to a home especially during the winter
home-heating season. Fireplaces are energy losers.
Researchers have studied
this to determine the amount of heat loss through a
fireplace, and the results are amazing. One research study
showed that an open damper on an unused fireplace in a
well-insulated house can raise overall heating-energy
consumption by 30 percent.
A recent study showed that
for many consumers, their heating bills may be more than
$500 higher per winter due to the air leakage and wasted
energy caused by fireplaces.
Why does a home with a
fireplace have higher heating bills? Hot air rises. Your
heated air leaks out any exit it can find, and when warm
heated air is drawn out of your home, cold outside air is
drawn in to make up for it. The fireplace is like a giant
straw sucking the heated air from your house.
An easy, low-cost solution
to this problem is to add a fireplace draftstopper.
Available from Battic Door, a company known for their
energy conservation products, a fireplace draftstopper is
an inflatable pillow that seals the damper, eliminating
any air leaks. The pillow is removed whenever the
fireplace is used, then reinserted after.
Clothes Dryer Exhaust Ducts
In many homes, the room
with the clothes dryer is the coldest room in the house.
Your clothes dryer is connected to an exhaust duct that is
open to the outdoors. In the winter, cold air leaks in
through the duct, through your dryer and into your house.
Dryer vents use a
sheet-metal flapper to try to reduce this air leakage.
This is very primitive technology that does not provide a
positive seal to stop the air leakage. Compounding the
problem is that over time, lint clogs the flapper valve
causing it to stay open.
An easy, low-cost solution
to this problem is to add a dryer vent seal. This will
reduce unwanted air infiltration, and keep out pests, bees
and rodents as well. The vent will remain closed unless
the dryer is in use. When the dryer is in use, a floating
shuttle rises to allow warm air, lint and moisture to
escape.
For more information on
Battic Door’s energy conservation solutions and
products, visit www.batticdoor.com.
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About
The Author
Mark
D. Tyrol is a Professional Engineer
specializing in cause and origin of
construction defects. He developed several
residential energy conservation products
including an attic stair cover and a
fireplace draftstopper. To learn more
visit www.batticdoor.com. |
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