That draft shouldn’t just make you shiver from the cold air but also at the money you’re losing! The estimates range from 25% to nearly 40% of the heat loss in your home occurs around windows and doors. Most of this heat loss is from gaps and cracks around them!
Now, something you may not know is a lot of this air is getting SUCKED into your house! This is happening from the Stack Effect or as we typically refer to it around here, the Chimney Effect. As the air is heated in your house, it rises, and if it finds little cracks and gaps in your ceiling it escapes. This air flow draws COLD air into the lower parts of your house! Not only are you losing money by the heat escaping, but it’s also causing cold air to get sucked into your house! Isn’t that just horrible?
Yes, it is HORRIBLE but what can I do about it? From our experience there are three main areas where this heat is able to escape; ceiling HVAC vents, and ceiling lights, and exhaust fans.
Ceiling HVAC Vents
Option #1 - take the vent cover off and seal (caulk or tape) between the ceiling and metal piece of duct work.
Option #2 - get some cans of spray foam, get in the attic space, and spray foam where the duct work boot meets your ceiling.
Ceiling Lights
Option #1 - apply clear caulk around where the fixture meets the ceiling.
Option #2 - this option requires a little more expertise and we would recommend flipping off the breaker before doing it. Pull the light fixture, seal along where the ceiling and electrical box meet with caulk or tape.
Option #3 - if you’re already in the attic spray foaming the vents, you could do the same thing around light fixture boxes.
Exhaust Fans
You’re armed with some options from the Ceiling HVAC Vents and Ceiling Lights sections.
One thing UNIQUE to exhaust fans is they are meant to move air out of a space when they are on. There is a flapper that uses gravity to stay down when the fan is not running. Guess what? Sometimes these flappers get stuck! Also, if the exhaust fan is just thrown into place and isn’t very level, gravity may keep the flapper partially open.
A great way to tell if you’re having a flapper problem is to light up some incense near your exhaust fan and watch to see if the smoke is getting sucked into the unit!
If you find that you’re having an issue with the flapper, give us a call and we will walk you through some next steps we would do!
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