Weatherize your Home this Winter: Identify Air Leaks

Allowing air to leak into your home through crevices and cracks may not seem like such a big deal, right? Wrong. 

Having air leak into your home can add as much as 20% to your heating and cooling bill, and bring moisture-filled air inside, increasing the chances of finding mold, condensation, and rot in certain places. 

While letting fresh air into the home does keep it healthy, controlling the timing as well as the entrance and exit of this air is extremely important to keeping your home free of such issues. 

Weatherization is your best bet for protecting your home, and in this blog you’ll learn just how to do this. Sealing the air leaks in your house can go a long way toward making your home more comfortable and cheaper to heat and cool. 

Let’s start with identifying the air leaks.

Looking for Air Leaks in the House

First, look for dirty spots on your carpets, ceilings and insulation. When air leaks into your home, it often carries dust and dirt with it, leaving telltale marks behind.

Check for air leaks around doors and windows by closing them onto a piece of paper. You shouldn’t be able to pull the paper out without it ripping. If you can, you’ve got a leak to seal.

You can find large leaks at night by shining a flashlight over areas you suspect might be leaking air. Have someone look at your house from the outside. If they see the light, there’s a crack. You won’t find small air leaks this way, though.

Smoke Puffer or Smoke Pencil

One of the tools you can use to discover where the leaks are in your home is the smoke puffer, also known as the smoke pencil. The “smoke” created by this device simplifies the task of finding invisible air leaks in thermal envelopes and duct work. 

Air likes to travel from warm to cool, so choosing a cool day is best when checking for air leaks – you can see where the smoke tries to exit your house. A windy day is ideal for finding air leaks. Shutting the furnace off and setting your exhaust fans to blow air out of the house helps, too.

You’ll know when you find an air leak by watching the smoke. Bring it close to where you think there might be a crack leaking air. Instead of curling upwards the smoke will flatten out and flow toward the gap.

Take your smoke pencil around to all the areas in your home that might have leaks. Most air leaks occur where two different parts of your building meet. The joins between your foundation and the walls, in your attic where the top sill meets the roof, next to the chimney, where two different types of siding meet, and anywhere you have an added-on room or porch are all prone to air leakage.

Some other places you might find air leaks in your home:

  • Around door and window frames
  • Under doors
  • Around light fixtures – especially ones on the top floor or on outside walls
  • Attic entrances
  • Old coal chutes
  • Electrical switches and outlets
  • Around plumbing pipes
  • Flues and vents
  • Anywhere you have a pipe or wire coming in, like cable or electric wires or gas services
  • Air conditioners and fans
  • Mail slots and chutes
  • Through cracks in brickwork or in a rubble foundation

Be sure to check all your ductwork, too. Even if your basement is tight, air leaking from ducts keeps your furnace from running efficiently.

Thermal Leak Detector

Another great tool is the thermal leak detector. Using infrared light, it finds soft spots along floor molding, around electrical outlets, and recessed lights. 

The detector has to determine a reference temperature, which can be found by directing the light to a wall. The infrared light will change to blue or red to point out a cold or hot spot. The thermal leak detector weighs less than 1 pound and can cost as little as $50. This winter make sure your home is protected from unwanted air leaks, and what better way to start than to find them?

Bring in the Pros

Even if you think you’ve found all the air leaks your house could possibly have, it could still be worth your while to bring in a consultant to do an energy audit in your home. A blower door test and inspection with an infrared camera could reveal hidden air leakage that you never knew was there — but which could be costing you every time your furnace or air conditioner kicks on.

Whether you choose to do it yourself or get help from the pros, finding the cracks and gaps that let air leak from your home is the first step to saving hundreds of dollars a year on your energy bills — and increasing the comfort level of your home.

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