100 Ways to Reduce Your Impact

Step 20 Air Seal your home

Air sealing is when you close all potential gaps, where heating and cooling can escape. Doing this can stop drafts, reduce noise, but most importantly, it decreases the amount of energy lost through poor sealing.

Once you are sealed efficiently, then you can properly insulate your home.

Comments

[ohbuttons]

Restricting many openings from allowing air infilltration to your home is a positive way to reduce utility costs.  However, do not forget that a house must be able to breath.  A house that is too tight will soon have problems with moisture damage and possibly mildew or mold.  The air in the house will become stagnant and unhealthy.  The normal entry and exit through the outside doors is usually not enough to prevent the above problems.  Even more importantly, roof  and eave vents need to be large enough to keep fresh air in the attic to prevent the same problems which can quickly ruin the roof.

[belcat]

This can't be stressed enough. An air leak can waste a lose a lot more heat than thin insulation. There are tons of locations for leaks: around plugs, in the basement in the space between the joists (header, and near the steel beams), around light fixtures in the top floor (especially heat lamps), around plugs, switches, windows (especially), around the attic hatch (use weatherstripping), around plumbing vents (in the attic), wires coming from the attic to the house lights/plugs, bathroom vents, older bathroom vents without a backvent preventer. If I seal vents do I get the cute hunk in the picture?