This weekends project

The first line of defense to reducing your heating and cooling costs is to reduce your air infiltration rate of your building. The reason is simple. When air is introduced into your structure you have to either heat that air or cool that air depending on the season. So by keeping the conditioned air (heated or cooled air) in the house longer the less energy is needed in the end. heating and cooling of a building is your structure largest energy expenditures so it makes sense to tackel that issue the first when you are trying to get yourself off the grid and become UtilityFree™

Air leaks in from cracks all over your house, from door cracks to cracks you never even are aware of until you really have a good look at your stricture. If you are still buying utilities then you have to pay for the energy on an on going basis and if you are producing your own on site power then the more energy produced the larger the power system and the more money it will cost you.

The wind at this location is a world of a difference from the last house we lived in. That house was in a suburban setting with the houses about 5 feet for one another. When the wind blew you really did not "feel" it for the most part. Here with wide open views you definitely feel it.

The first high wind day the house felt "drafty". I knew that there must have been some big leaks besides the typical leaks from the doors and windows. The windows are many what I would call a B grade window so they are fairly tight. So that was not the problem. The doors could use a little work but they where not bad either. Nut the chief culprit was electrical outlet. You could put your hand over a plug or a light switch box and it was like there was no wall there. Air was streaming in from the outside at every electrical outlet.

When the wind blows it causes a negative pressure on ones structure and air is pushed into your house in any crack that it can find. Negative pressure is also created when your gas furnace turns on and has to have Oxygen to burn its fuel. All combustion requires oxygen to burn. Where does it get that Oxygen? Where ever it can get it which is usually form the outside. Outside air is sucked into the room where the combustion takes place. Newer furnace installations now have a pipe that allows outside air to be drawn into the room to allow combustion and doe snot drawn it in from other area of the house.

I started with the kitchen plugs and am working my way around the house. I have maybe 1/4 of the outlets fixed but have to of the rest. Remember that air infiltration stopping techniques work to kept the cold OUT of the house in the heating season and hot OUT of the house in the cooling season. So just like good insulation values air infiltration stopping techniques work ALL year around. Win , Win. More comfort, less energy usage = money saved!

On my next post I will be posting pictures and talk about the different options on how one stops air infiltration from electrical outlets in ones home.

Have a great day!