ir Sealing
ir Sealing
Make Any Home Comfortable And Energy Efficient Through Air Sealing From Home Shield Insulation.
Are you tired of the cold drafts that you feel in the hallway? Do you ever wonder why your energy bill is $250-$450 per month when it should be $100 per month. These annoyances could be due to an excessive amount of air leakage in your home. Air leakage allows the conditioned air in your home to escape outside, while allowing unconditioned, outside air, to enter the home. The air meant to make your home more comfortable is escaping, costing you money and comfort! Here at Home Shield Insulation, we know exactly how to air seal your home to maximize the effectiveness of your insulation, while saving you $1,000s over just a few years. This drastically improves the comfort of your home!
Why Is Air Sealing Important?
Stack Effect
Imagine that you areThe first concept to help fully understand the importance of air sealing is the stack effect. Hot air rises, especially in the winter. Air will continue to rise through the home as long as there are penetrations to move through. For every cubic foot of air that leaves the home, there has to be another cubic foot of air to take its place. The stack effect causes air to escape out of the top of the home (i.e. ceiling, attic, and roof). This air will be pulled into the house through gaps/cracks in the windows, basement, crawlspace, foundation vents, and plumbing penetrations towards
Penetrations
There are penetrations or air leakage points throughout an entire home. These penetrations are predominantly found in the attic, windows, plumbing penetrations, chimney, and HVAC duct boots. While the stack effect is pushing air up the home, these air leakage points allow the air to escape. This phenomenon explains the drafts that may be felt along hallways, kitchens, and living spaces. The penetrations also drive your energy costs through the roof (pun intended). They make your HVAC system work extra hard to keep your home conditioned.
Air Changes Per Hour
FUN FACT: The average home experiences 6 air changes per every hour. What are air changes per hour (ACH)? Simply put, air changes represent the number of times that a home loses its volume of air in a given hour. Excessive ACH may shorten the lifespan of your HVAC while increasing the draftiness of your home. This results in expensive heating and cooling costs. As discussed above, air leakage points are directly correlated with ACH within your home.
Call You Local Home Shield Insulators Today To See How Much We Can Save You!
How Do We Air Seal?
At Home Shield Insulation, we love to start with the attic. By sealing and insulating the top of the home, we can prevent significant energy loss from the stack effect moving through air leakage points. Common air leakage points in the attic are:
At Home Shield Insulation, we love to start with the attic. By sealing and insulating the top of the home, we can prevent significant energy loss from the stack effect moving through air leakage points. Common air leakage points in the attic are:
Top Plates Of Wall Voids And Plumbing Penetrations
These areas are found along the outside perimeter of the attic and anywhere else that walls in your living space terminate in the attic. There is typically a gap between the 2×4 top plate and the drywall. A substantial amount of air can escape through these gaps. Spray foam is the best way to seal up these gaps. Interesting Fact: Cool air leaking into a humid, hot attic causes a few different problems. Condensation can form where the cool air is meeting the humid air. The condensation will cause damaged, compacted insulation, mold growth, and wood rot.
Can Lights
Can lights typically have some of the most noticeable air leakage gaps, sometimes so bad that light can be seen from the living space in the attic. These can be sealed over with a combination of caulk and a foam board cover.
Recess Lights
Recess lights are tricky because they are typically not IC rated due to the heat that they produce. IC stands for ‘insulation contact’. Extra care needs to be taken with these penetrations. We will either fully repace these lights with an IC rated light, or seal over with a rock wool cap. Rock wool caps are perfect because they are fire retardant, and provide an additional layer of insulation around the recess light penetration.
Ask your insulation contractor how they are going to retrofit your attic.
Have us air seal your attic! We save the average homeowner 20-30% on their heating and cooling costs by JUST properly air sealing the attic floor. We can make most homes more comfortable by JUST removing the old insulation and air sealing. By air sealing the attic before installing new insulation, we can save you 2-3X more than what the typical “spray and pray” contractor can. With our air sealing solutions, we can give you 3-4x the benefit! Call us today for a FREE energy audit.
Flues
Flues are similar to recess lights in that they can heat up to unsafe temperatures, potentially becoming a fire hazard when making contact with insulation. We will always seal these penetrations up with
The Chimney
Chimneys are a major source of air loss. There is typically an inch thick gap surrounding the perimeter of the chimney. Also, many homeowners forget to close their chimney flue when the chimney is not in use. Keeping the chimney flue open can be a major source of air leakage. We recommend keeping the chimney flue closed when the chimney is not in use. We will seal any gaps around the chimney in the attic with fire retardant spray foam and foam board. This will thoroughly prevent any sorry of
HVAC Duct Boots
The average home loses 20-30% of its HVAC energy through duct leaks. Another major point of leakage is where the duct boot connects to the attic floor. The gaps around a duct boot will either allow conditioned air to leak into the attic, or allow unconditioned air in the attic to leak into the home. We easily solve this problem by sealing around the duct boot with Great Stuff spray foam. Spray and Pray Contractor Definition: A contractor that cuts corners by simply spraying more insulation on top of your attic. These contractors will tell you that this “spray and pray” solution will work, setting you up for disappointment in the end result. These jobs are cheap and will not get you the comfortable, energy-efficient home that you were hoping for. Don’t get taken advantage of!
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Ready to improve your home’s comfort and energy efficiency in Charlotte, NC? Contact Home Shield Insulation today for a free consultation! Our friendly team is here to answer any questions you may have and provide you with reliable solutions tailored to your specific needs in the Queen City.