If you could take on a project that would improve home energy efficiency through every season, would you want to know about it? If it was a low-cost project, you’d probably jump at the opportunity. Well, you can realize those wishes with an easy project: sealing your home’s envelope.
Much like a physical envelope in which you mail a letter must be sealed to keep its contents inside, your home has an envelope, too. It consists of the outer walls, floors and ceilings, including the attic and basement spaces. When these perimeter areas are sealed tightly, you’ll prevent heat loss and heat gain—both of which can greatly affect your energy bills, putting them into a downward spin.
Heat gain
Without a tightly-sealed outer envelope, your home is at the mercy of infiltration—a process that occurs when outside air can come into the home. In the summer, a tight home will prevent heat gain, whereby hot outside air seeking a colder space then enters the home through cracks and leaks.
This heat gain will then affect your air-conditioning equipment, causing it to work harder to bring the home’s temperature back down and consuming more energy in the process.
Heat loss
In the winter, air leaks cause the reverse problem. Keeping in mind that hotter air will always move toward cooler spaces, the air inside the home now is warmer than the outside air, so if cracks and leaks exist in your home’s envelope, inside conditioned air will move outside, causing your furnace to ramp up its efforts to warm up the home.
Sealing leaks
Sealing air leaks to improve home energy efficiency is a fairly easy do-it-yourself job. With simple caulk and weatherstripping, you can seal leaks that commonly occur around windows, doors, plumbing pipes, electrical wiring and outlets.
It’s fairly easy—and cost effective—to improve home energy efficiency by sealing your home’s envelope. You’ll get an additional no-cost perk too: Your home comfort will noticeably increase. Contact Around The Clock Air Conditioning & Heating in the greater Los Angeles area for expert advice or help with improving home energy efficiency.
Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about improving home energy efficiency and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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