Stop Drafts & Save Money on Energy Bills

Imagine leaving a window open all winter long -- the heat loss, cold drafts and wasted energy! If your home has a folding pull-down attic stair, a whole house fan, a fireplace or clothes dryer, that may be just what is occurring in your home every day.

Drafts from these often overlooked holes waste energy and cost you big in the form of higher energy bills. Drafts are the largest source of heating and cooling loss in the home.

Drafts occur through the small cracks around doors, windows, pipes, etc. Most homeowners are well aware of the benefits that caulk and weatherstripping provide to minimize energy loss and drafts.

But what can you do about drafts from the four largest "holes" in your home - - the folding attic stair, the whole house fan, 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 attic door. Try this yourself: at night, turn on the attic light and shut the attic stairway door - - do you see any light coming through?

If you do, heated and air-conditioned air is leaking out of these large gaps in your home 24-hours a day. This is like leaving a window or skylight open all year 'round.

An easy, low-cost solution to this problem is to add an insulated attic stair cover. An attic stair cover seals the stairs, stopping drafts and energy loss. Add the desired amount of insulation over the cover to restore the insulation removed from the ceiling.

Whole House Fans and Air Conditioning Vents

Much like attic stairs above, when whole house fans are installed, a large hole (up to 16 square feet or larger) is created in your ceiling. The ceiling and insulation that were there have to be removed, leaving only the drafty ceiling shutter between you and the outdoors.

An easy, low-cost solution to this problem is to add a whole house fan shutter seal. Made from white textured flexible insulation, the shutter seal is installed over the ceiling shutter, secured with Velcro, and trimmed to fit. The shutter seal can also be used to seal and insulate air conditioning vents, and is easily removed when desired.

Fireplaces

Over 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 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 drafts and wasted energy caused by fireplaces.

Why does a home with a fireplace have higher energy bills? Your chimney is an opening that leads directly outdoors - - just like an open window. Even if the damper is shut, it is not airtight.

Glass doors don't stop the drafts either. The fireplace is like a giant straw sucking your expensive heated or air-conditioned air right out of your house!

An easy, low-cost solution to this problem is to add a Fireplace Plug to your fireplace. Available from Battic Door, a company known for their energy conservation products, the Fireplace Plug is an inflatable pillow that seals the fireplace damper, eliminating drafts, odors, and noise. 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 drafts in through the duct, through your dryer and into your house.

Dryer vents use a sheet-metal flapper to try to reduce these drafts. This is very primitive technology that does not provide a positive seal to stop the drafts. 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 drafts, and also keeps out pests, bees and rodents. 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 for your home, visit www.batticdoor.com or, to request a free catalog, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to P.O. Box 15, Mansfield, MA 02048.

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 an attic access door. Battic Door is the US distributor of the fireplace plug. To learn more visit www.batticdoor.com

National Vampire Awareness Day!

Guess what today is?!

Okay, so you read my title already... But it's not what you think. I swear! Today is Vampire Awareness Day - this is true. What's not true is that it's Vampire Awareness Day because Halloween and Trick or Treating is upon us.

We're talking about a different kind of vampire. The kind that doesn't suck the blood from your neck, but the money from your wallet.

No, it's not a day to call attention to your ex-wife... although, that would be funny.

The folks over at Best Buy have declared an awareness of energy vampires to help save you cash on your utility bills.

What is Vampire Power?

• Vampire Power is the electricity that consumer electronics and appliances use while they are switched off or in a standby mode.
• It is responsible for wasting an estimated $4 billion in the U.S. annually and the Department of Energy notes that this figure could rise by 20 percent by 2010.

How Does Vampire Power Affect Me?

• The average American home has approximately 20 to 40 electronics devices plugged in that abuse vampire power.
• These appliances can cost you close to $1,000 in electricity costs per year at current rates (more in the future if energy costs continue to climb). Even when they're not on.

A Stake in the Heart Won't Work - How Can Reduce Energy Bloodletting?

• Use a power strip so multiple devices can be switched off at the same time
• Unplug your chargers from the wall when they are not in use

Just because your stereo is off or your computer is "sleeping", it doesn't mean that it's not draining power. When you see that little red light on, it means it's sucking money from your purse. And that's not cool.

Go to the Vampire Awareness Day page (.pdf) to read a Fact Sheet with more details and what you can do to help.

Killing the vampires in your house is a great way to save money, save energy, reduce CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, and help save the planet.

It's the green thing to do. And keeping a little money in your checking account is nice, too.

Also, if you need to do an Energy Audit of your home, ConstructionDeal.com can help. We'll match you with a local Energy Auditor to review your home and determine if your home is wasting even more energy and money.

It's a fast and easy process - simply submit your request and get up to 4 quotes from Home Energy Auditors in a matter of hours. At not cost.

Remodeling Trends: Is Now the Time to Remodel?

Wall Street Journal: "'The current housing slump is making remodeling a kitchen or bathroom or adding an addition easier and cheaper. Sluggish home-building demand is pushing down the cost of construction materials (prices for lumber are near their lowest level in a decade) and spurring contractors to take on smaller projects, and sometimes cut fees."

"Custom and speculative builders are also starting to take on renovation jobs, picking up work they may have passed over just a year ago."

"In Tucson, Ariz., Richard Fink, a custom home builder, used to do a few remodeling jobs as favors to former clients; now remodeling has grown to half his business. Samm Jernigan, a high-end custom home builder in Wilmington, N.C., said earlier this year he started 'aggressively pursuing' remodeling projects for the first time, and John Diament, a home builder outside of Philadelphia, says two months ago he started asking architects to send big remodeling jobs his way."

"'It's good news for the consumer if you've got a lot more people seeking projects,' says Gopal Ahluwalia, for the National Association of Home Builders."

"Meanwhile, prices of framing lumber have fallen dramatically, says Shawn Church, the editor of an industry newsletter. The composite price per thousand board feet of framing lumber was $274 this week, compared with $375 a year earlier. Ken Simonson, the chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America, says he expects to see a roughly 10 percent drop in prices of gypsum and construction plastics when government price data are released later this month."

"The falloff is largely because of slowing new-home construction, which for several years had driven up the cost of materials. Growth in spending on remodeling has also slowed recently, a result of rising interest rates and homeowners who have postponed selling, along with presale renovations."

"The new environment means that homeowners are more likely to find contractors willing to take on projects quickly. 'Rather than saying ‘call me next spring,' they'll be more likely to say 'I'll be over this week to the talk about the project,’ says Kermit Baker, at the Harvard Joint Center."

"Contractor Don Sever in Oakton, Va., says he sees interest in remodeling starting to ease. He has trimmed prices by about 5 percent to attract more business. 'People are much more cautious about spending that home-equity money,' he says."

"When Bruce Ash wanted to do a large-scale renovation at his Tucson home, he found Mr. Fink of Becklin Construction to take on the $700,000 project. 'Normally, the market has been such that we could never get custom builders to remodel homes, but now, they are interested,' says Mr. Ash, a real-estate manager."

Keep ConstructionDeal.com in mind for your next remodeling project! It's a fast, free and easy way to find a renovation contractor. Simply submit your request and get 4 quotes from qualified remodeling companies. Now is the time to save big money on your home improvement project.

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