High Energy Bills
Conserve Energy to lower your heating bill and carbon footprint
Most home in the U.S. have a great opportunity to save a huge amount of energy, money all while lowering their carbon dioxide emissions. Air leakage and pooly installed or too little insulation lead to tremendous amounts of heated and air conditioned air to escape from our homes. Furthermore leaks in your heating/cooling duct system are potentially loosing large amounts of energy.
Home Performance Testing is one of the most effective methods for diagnosing where your home is losing energy. Air leakage is commonplace in U.S. homes due to construction flaws, recessed lighting, plumbing and electrical chases, just to name a few. These gaps in the building shell need to be found and sealed up to keep the conditioned air from leaking out and wasting energy. Home Performance Testing involves using sophisticated test equipment which can help locate and measure how much air is leaking through the floor, walls, and ceiling in your home.
Once the house shell leaks have been repaired the next potential energy saving measure is to install additional insulation. A home performance contractor can evaluate your existing insulation and determine if additional insulation could benefit your home.
Recent studies in building science have shown that insulation must be installed meticulously without any gaps between the insulation and the building shell in order to perform to its rated value. Unfortunately many homes have poorly installed insulation that is not performing well. A home performance contractor can evaluate the existing insulation and recommend what can be done to remedy poorly installed insulation.
Home Performance Contractors can also test and seal the ductwork of the heating and cooling system. Ducts can be a major contributor to energy loss in houses. Home performance tests can identify the size and locations of the duct leaks. Using a duct sealing material called "duct mastic" leaks can be sealed up tight to keep the expensive heated or cooled air in the ducts and then delivered to your home instead of leaking into the attic or crawlspace.
Once your homes shell and ductwork is airtight with high levels of properly installed insulation you will enjoy greater comfort, lower heating and cooling bills and know that you are doing you part to reduce carbon emissions that lead to global warming.
