Making
Sure Your Green Home is
Properly Insulated and Weatherproof
When
deciding to make your home green, one of the first steps
you should do is to ensure that your home is properly
insulated and weatherproof.
When your home isn’t properly insulated with
storm windows, weather-stripping, caulking, and storm
windows, you are throwing away approximately 20% to 50 %
of the money you are spending on heating and cooling
cost.
Properly
insulating your home is usually simple and very
inexpensive—except for installing storm windows or
Energy Star certified window and storm doors, which can
be expensive. However,
the amount of money you could savings on your energy
bills may be more than enough to pay for new energy
efficient windows and doors.
At
this point I would like to state that no home should be
completely airtight, as every home needs to be able to
breathe, in order to avoid structural problems as well
as health problems.
The
following steps can be used to help you decide whether
or not your home is properly sealed against the weather.
Make
sure that the seams around your windows and doors are
sealed with caulking.
Inspect
the weather stripping around all of your windows.
There should be weather stripping on all sides of
the window, the top, bottom and both sides and for
double-hung windows there should be weather stripping
between both sashes.
Inspect
all exterior doors and make sure that they have
weather-stripping along both sides and along the top. Along the bottom of all doors there should be a sweep to
prevent air leakage around the threshold.
Replace
all cracked and broken windowpanes.
Inspect
the putty around all window panes.
If the putty around the windows is cracked, or
missing completely then it needs to be replaced.
If
you do not have storm windows or doors, then consider
purchasing them. If
you do have storm windows and doors, then they should be
inspected twice a year to make sure the weep hole
located on the bottom of the frame is not clogged.
When the weep hole is clogged or blocked moisture
can not escape and this can cause your windows/ glass to
fog as well as causing wood around the windows and doors
to rot and mildew.
Carefully
inspect your foundation and siding for leaks and cracks
and seal these with paintable caulking.
Also seal around your plumbing, gas pipes,
wiring, telephone lines, and television/cable wires.
In short, you want to seal any openings that you
find.
Install
foam gaskets behind all switch and receptacle plates on
all exterior walls.
It
is important for you to check the amount of insulation
there is in your attic, as well as under your
crawlspace. Insulation
can sag or even fall down, leaving your home with cold
floors.
If
you haven’t already, contact your energy supplier and
request a full energy audit.
A full energy audit will also inspect the
insulation in your walls to ensure that you have
adequate amounts of insulation.
If your energy supplier does not offer energy
audits, then check your Yellow Pages for a certified
company that does offer audits.
Once
you have properly sealed your home, you need to have a
heating and cooling technician inspect your combustion
appliances including your gas/ or oil furnace, water
heater, and dryer as well as your stove to ensure that
they are venting properly.
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