Energy Savings Both you and your furnace need some fresh air coming into the house — also to clear out odours and moisture. This is called infiltration and most Canadian homes have too much. In fact, up to 25 per cent of your heat loss can be due to excess infiltration around windows, doors and other cracks. These drafts not only cost you money but can make your home unpleasant through winter.

How far should you go in sealing up the house? Continue to seal, weatherstrip and caulk until you find that in quite cold weather, a light but not excessive fog or mist develops occasionally on windows on the downwind side. At this point you've achieved a considerable saving, without making the house too airtight. Most homes have a long way to go to reach this point.

Above all remember that oil and gas furnaces in closed furnace rooms need a free and unobstructed supply of air to keep the flame burning efficiently.

The draft gauge

When you're sitting around the house, does a member of the family occasionally complain of feeling a cold draft? This can be difficult to locate by feeling along the bottom of a window or around a door, but here's a simple item you can make to accurately pinpoint the source of the draft.




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Home > Energy Savings > Weatherstripping And Caulking

October 12, 2008