Tips to Air Seal Your Home
Frigid temps can create a bit of anxiety for families, especially when it comes to warming the home. The top reasons cold air enters the home are old windows and doors, in addition to other places around the home. Old windows pose problems with proper closures, which can cause air leaks. It’s important to consider replacement windows and doors for your home if you learn there are many air leaks.
How to Air Seal Your Home
When time is not on your side and you need a quick fix to air seal your home, The U.S. Department of Energy offers these tips on what you can do:
Caulk and weatherstrip doors and windows that leak air.
Caulk and seal air leaks where plumbing, ducting, or electrical wiring comes through walls, floors, ceilings, and soffits over cabinets.
Install foam gaskets behind outlet and switch plates on walls.
Inspect dirty spots on any visual insulation for air leaks and mold. Seal leaks with low-expansion spray foam made for this purpose and install house flashing if needed.
Look for dirty spots on your ceiling paint and carpet, which may indicate air leaks at interior wall/ceiling joints and wall/floor joists, and caulk them.
Replace single-pane windows with more efficient double-pane low-emissivity windows.
Use foam sealant on larger gaps around windows, baseboards, and other places where air may leak out.
Check your dryer vent to be sure it is not blocked. This will save energy and may prevent a fire.
Replace exterior door bottoms and thresholds with ones that have pliable sealing gaskets.
Keep the fireplace flue damper tightly closed when not in use.
Seal air leaks around fireplace chimneys, furnaces, and gas-fired water heater vents with fire-resistant materials such as sheet metal or sheetrock and furnace cement caulk.
In addition, Willow Window encourages families to wrap windows and unused doors with a window insulation shrink kit that’s available at your local hardware store.
When you’re ready for replacement windows, consider ProVia’s low-e, Argon gas filled Energy-Star Windows. According to The U.S. Department of Energy, “A low-e coating is a microscopically thin, virtually invisible, metal or metallic oxide layer deposited directly on the surface of one or more of the panes of glass. The low-e coating lowers the U-factor of the window, and can manage the daylight transmittance as well as the solar heat gain through the glazing system.” Adding that Argon gas fills can also minimize heat transfer between the interior and exterior layers of your windows.
Willow Window is ready to order your replacement windows and doors, when it’s convenient for you. Until then, we hope these tips can help keep your family warm when severe weather threatens Tennessee.