{"id":1554,"date":"2011-01-22T21:37:46","date_gmt":"2011-01-23T02:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/?p=1554"},"modified":"2011-01-22T21:42:50","modified_gmt":"2011-01-23T02:42:50","slug":"letting-your-house-breathe-but-not-too-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/?p=1554","title":{"rendered":"Letting Your House Breathe — But Not Too Much"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Bob Tedeschi, NEW YORK TIMES, January 12, 2011<\/em><\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a> LITTLE known fact: your house breathes.<\/p>\n

A typical home is supposed to exhale about 33 percent of its air every hour, sparing your lungs from mold, dust and other tiny invaders.<\/p>\n

My house doesn\u2019t breathe. It hyperventilates. Every hour it purges about 75 percent of its air \u2014 which is fine for my family\u2019s health, but it kills me to think that we pay to heat that air and then quickly set it free.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll explain the source of that 75 percent figure a little later. Right now let\u2019s focus on the basic mission: finding where the air is escaping, plugging those holes and watching the heating bill shrink.<\/p>\n

Job No. 1 \u2014 locating the leaks \u2014 was a challenge. My home has foam insulation, fiberglass insulation, insulated windows, weatherstripping and enough caulk to seal a ship. How exactly does 75 percent of my air escape every hour?<\/p>\n

I posed the question to three residential energy specialists, and in the process learned some tricks \u2014 a few of which will also help apartment dwellers, who usually have no worries about foundation cracks or attic insulation.<\/p>\n

My panel included Kelly Parker, a board member of the Residential Energy Services Network, an association of firms that rate home energy efficiency; Michael David, lead technician for New England Conservation Services<\/a>, which performs energy audits and upgrades; and Bob Gfeller, a senior vice president at Lowe\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Finding a leak is easy, they said. Get a blower door<\/a>, which depressurizes a house so that even the tiniest drafts blow like a stiff wind. They cost a mere $2,900. Second choice: a Black & Decker laser thermal leak detector<\/a> ($42, at Lowe\u2019s), which will identify the cold spots that coincide with leaks.<\/p>\n

The most cost-effective sleuthing device, though, is even cheaper and may already be in your home \u2014 a stick of incense. Pick a breezy day and pass the burning stick near any seam in your house, and the smoke will reveal where the leak is.<\/p>\n

I took a lighted incense stick around my doors and windows, and the technique worked fairly well, even if I grew completely sick of the smell after a while.<\/p>\n

But Mr. David and his colleagues later found that I\u2019d missed some spots I hadn\u2019t even thought to check, like the seam between my fireplace and the wall, and my baseboard heaters. My two biggest omissions were the attic and the basement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf your attic access is inside the house, that\u2019s a big one to watch for,\u201d Mr. Parker said. \u201cIf it\u2019s not well sealed, it\u2019s like leaving a big door open.\u201d<\/p>\n

At some point in the last few years, I lost a bolt that secured one of the two big springs in my drop-down attic ladder, leaving one corner sagging about a half-inch from the ceiling. I never considered the effect that sag might have on my budget until I envisioned air streaming through the gap.<\/p>\n

As for the basement, \u201cCheck the places where all your piping is coming and going,\u201d Mr. Gfeller said. \u201cSometimes things happen, like your house might settle, and it\u2019ll open a pretty good-sized crack.\u201d<\/p>\n

To spot those leaks, try this: Go to the basement in the daytime, but keep the lights turned off. Depending on the angle of the sun, you may detect cracks from the daylight shining through the foundation.<\/p>\n

For me, this exercise actually solved two mysteries. The pipes to my outside water spigots apparently travel through holes big enough to accommodate much airflow \u2014 and many mice. (Stay tuned for a column on rodent removal.)<\/p>\n

Basement doors are another area of vulnerability, since people often pay little attention to how well they\u2019re constructed or maintained. In my case, the frame was surrounded with gaps that had probably been there the entire decade we\u2019ve lived in the house.<\/p>\n

If you have a fireplace, don\u2019t even bother checking it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey all leak,\u201d Mr. David said. \u201cEven if you have the flue closed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doesn\u2019t my fancy hearth cover help?<\/p>\n

\u201cNope,\u201d he said. \u201cThose all leak, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last, a word to those with central air or central heat: try the incense trick around the seams of the ductwork. Even a small gap can allow costly leaks. [Read rest of article]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article in the NY Times can be used as a checklist
\n of the many things you can do to insulate your house yourself, for very little money, with very little skill, and come up with substantial savings in energy use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1554"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1556,"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554\/revisions\/1556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}