Weatherization. It’s an extremely important issue often times overlooked and many times a builder does not properly seal the building envelope .
If the structure of a home isn’t airtight, it will build up heat in the summer, and lose heat in the winter. Essentially, failing to weatherize your home results in higher energy bills in any season when you need to run your HVAC system. You’ll also fail to provide comfort for household occupants, as well as a high return on investment from your HVAC equipment.
The Grand Design
Home builders generally perform two steps during the designing and building process to ensure proper weatherization of a new home: sealing the adjoining building materials around the perimeter of the building, and installing insulation inside of the building’s structure. These two actions help stop the natural movement of heat, or heat transfer, which occurs in these ways:
- Conduction: Heat transfer that occurs through an object. For instance, if it’s hot outside, walls without insulation also become hot on the inside.
- Convection: Heat that transfers into a space via a liquid or gas. For instance, if warm air can enter your home through a crack in a door frame, it mixes with cold air, transferring energy to the cold air.
During both processes, the HVAC system in a home must generate more conditioned air to counter the energy loss.
While the ideal home design takes conduction and convection into account, a few scenarios can compromise the original airtight and insulated design, including improper installation and the degradation of materials over time.
Insulation
Installing insulation from the top to the bottom of a home is standard practice. However, homeowners should routinely inspect their insulation to ensure proper performance. If you’ve recently purchased a home, you may not be sure of the quality of installation for the insulation. If any gaps exist between the batts in the attic, for example, energy loss will occur. Additionally, insulation can degrade over time, and it also has a predictable life span, which varies depending on the type used around the home.
Regularly inspecting and updating your home’s insulation helps to stop unnecessary heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer. The latter is generally more of a concern in the Atlanta and Sandy Springs areas; however, insufficient insulation can also lead to higher energy costs in winter, too.
Weatherstripping and Caulking
Weatherization doesn’t stop with insulation. Homeowners should also use best practices for effectively sealing the leaks and cracks in the home’s structure. When outside heat enters the home through the cracks, it increases the temperature in the home down, causing the air conditioner to run a longer cycle to compensate for the heat gain. Closing up the gaps by using weatherstripping on doors and windows, and caulking around areas where construction materials meet, keeps energy costs down.
Get Expert Help
For optimal results, consider hiring an expert with the expertise and tools to evaluate your home’s efficiency, and employ the right solutions to stop convection and conduction.
Lower energy costs are not the only benefits homeowners receive from employing proper weatherization practices. You’ll also secure a higher level of comfort throughout the home, and get a better return on investment from your HVAC system.
The experts at Reliable Heating and Air are happy to help our Atlanta and Sandy Springs neighbors with weatherization. Just give us a call today!
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