How to figure out where you're wasting energy
| Updated: 8/10/2009 8:52 am |
Published: 7/05/2009 4:15 pm |
Kelly Dudzik:
"So we did the energy efficiency test and this home needs some improvements, and these are two of the biggest culprits, right?"
Bret Curry: "Yeah, Kelly, you're right, it is inefficient. And we know through the blower door test, that the house is a 70-percent leaker, and what that means is that of this 1100 square foot house, that out of the total volume, that 70-percent of the air changes every hour, and two of the main problems, one of them is the attic staircase, the folding attic staircase and behind it is an older whole-house ventilation system, and today is it almost 100 degrees, so that heat is wanting to get into that air conditioned spaces through these two areas."
Kelly Dudzik: "So what can you do to stop that from happening?"
Bret Curry: "Well, one thing we can do is we can use this product called an attic tent, and it's simply a foam product that we can put up over this folding attic staircase that has a radiant barrier and it helps keeps the air and hot air out. And we also have what's called foam board, and we actually have to improvise here, and we're going to take the actual flange off and we're going to put this R board of foam board above the ventilation system and then we're going to cover it up with insulation. So it's a do it yourself thing. If you don't know how to do it, you certainly need to get some help, but these are ways that you can stop the heat from coming into your house."
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