If your energy bills seem higher than those of your neighbors, expensive air leaks may be the culprit. Air leaks, whether they’re large or small, add to your conditioning bills because they allow warm air into your home, forcing your A/C to heat air that shouldn’t be there in the first place. It’s not hard to find or fix most of these expensive air leaks, and your savings will be immediate.
Finding air leaks
Professional energy auditors and HVAC contractors often use a blower-door test to locate air leaks in the perimeter of homes. They place a sophisticated fan inside an exterior door frame, close all the windows and open the interior doors. When they turn the fan on, it blows the air out of your home, depressurizing the interior, and resulting in outside air forcing its way back inside. Technicians can then identify where this is happening, and proceed to seal the leaks.
You can create your own air leak detection process by closing the windows and exterior doors and turning on all the bathroom and kitchen exhaust fans. Walk through your home with a lighted stick of incense or candle and note on a sheet of paper where the smoke or flame wavers. Pay the most attention to your windows and exterior doors, followed by places where pipes, cables and wires enter your home.
Sealing the leaks
Use exterior caulk to seal air leaks around window frames. Use expanding foam to seal larger gaps. Apply new weatherstripping around door frames after removing the old and cleaning the surface of the frames with a solvent. If gaps exist at the base of the door, install a door sweep or use draft blockers to reduce air infiltration.
Air leaks within your home may also come from leaking ductwork. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that these leaks can increase conditioning bills by 30 percent or more, depending on their severity. If your ducts are easy to access, inspect them periodically to make sure they are tightly sealed.
For more advice on sealing expensive air leaks in your Yuma area home, please contact us at Hansberger Refrigeration and Electric Company. We’ve provided HVAC services in Southwest Arizona since 1952.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Yuma, Arizona about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about fixing air leaks and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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