Weatherizing Your Home
Fast Facts
- Weatherizing your
home involves making sure that all gaps in your home's building envelope
are plugged and that your home has a sufficient amount of insulation
in all parts of the envelope.
- Unless your home
was constructed with special attention to energy efficiency, adding
insulation will probably reduce your utility bills.
- Much of the existing
housing stock in the United States is not insulated to the best level.
- The air leakage
in a typical U.S. home is equal to leaving a window wide open.
- Inadequate insulation
and air leakage are leading causes of energy waste in most homes.
- It is possible
to add insulation to almost any house.
- Heat flows from
warmer to cool spaces, moving directly from all heated living spaces
to adjacent unheated attics, garages, and basements, or to the outdoors.
During the cooling season, heat flows from outdoors to the house interior.
- Insulation is rated
in terms of thermal resistance, called R-value, which indicates the
resistance to heat flow. The higher the R-value, the greater the
insulating effectiveness.
What can
I do to save energy in my home?
- Insulate your
attic to the recommended level, including the attic door, or hatch
cover.
- Provide the recommended
level of insulation under floors above unheated spaces, around
walls in a heated basement or unventilated crawl space, and on the
edges of slabs-on-grade.
- Use the recommended
levels of insulation for exterior walls for new house construction.
When remodeling or re-siding your house, consider using the levels recommended
for new construction in your existing walls.
- Caulk and weather-strip
doors and windows
- Close chimney flue
and seal unused fireplaces
- Seal exterior wall
around pipes and wires
- Use plastic sheeting
on the interiors to make a temporary double-pane window
- When replacing
windows, consider a double pane windows with a frame in vinyl or wood
clad in vinyl or aluminum.
- Insulate openings
for whole-house fans
Additional Sources of Information
Save Energy and $Money$ with
These Simple Tips
The ENERGY
STAR® web site
gives an on-site assessment tool to rate your home's energy use. The
site offers homeowners the top five cost-effective home improvements
to save money, improve comfort, and to protect the environment.
Another
excellent resource for residential energy savings is the U.S. DOE National
Renewable Energy Laboratory publication, ENERGY SAVERS, Tips on
Saving Energy & Money at Home. You can download it from their web site or call the Maryland Energy Administration office at 800-72ENERGY to
request that a copy be mailed to you; and. . . . .
Two
simple, yet very effective measures homeowners can take to reduce energy
bills:
-
Purchase
a water heater blanket: With its
heat reflecting insulated material, it can save approximately 20%
in heating costs. A one-size-fits-all blanket will fit
all heaters up to 72 gallons and can be used on any gas or electric
unit. Water heater blankets are not expensive and can be bought
in many stores.
- Landscape
with trees, shrubs, or vines around your home: Besides
the aesthetic benefits to your property, well-placed trees can actually
save up to 25% of a typical household's heating and cooling
costs. Trees provide shade and evaporative cooling to reduce
air temperatures. Tree-shaded neighborhoods have been found to be
3 to 6 degrees cooler in the summer. Planting deciduous trees around
the south perimeter of a house give protection from summer sun but
allow the winter sunlight to reach and warm the house. Vines are excellent
for shade and cooling when planted near windows or even an entire
side of a house. Evergreen trees and shrubs planted on north and west
sides of homes provide helpful wind breaks in the winter and deflect
summer winds if planted on south and west locations around your home.
When choosing trees, consider height, growth rate, branch spread and
the shape as important factors.
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