Complete Insulation – Right Way to Make Your Home Energy Efficient

Controlling the flow of air in and out of the home is the right way to maintain a comfortable temperature within the house. There can be many holes, chinks and cracks and if all of them are not repaired and sealed, warm air will escape from your home and the rooms will remain cold in winter even if you have provisions for room heating.

In summer too, the cooled air from your home will escape through the holes. Some people think that replacing the windows will insulate their homes. Replacing old and broken windows with new air tight windows will help to stop the air from escaping the room to some extent but there are other places too where the air can go out through.

As long as all these air outlets are not repaired and closed, cooled or heated air will continue to escape and your expenditure on room heating and room cooling will continue to rise.

Advantages of Insulating Your Home

Insulation prevents the warm air from escaping from your home in winter and cooled air in summer. So inside your home, the temperature will be a comfortable and pleasant.

If the air inside your home is allowed to escape, the heating and cooling systems will have to work more to maintain the required temperature within the house. This will naturally increase energy consumption and the energy bill.

When people notice an increase in the energy bill, what they generally do is to either switch off or minimize the cooling and heating systems, making them suffer both in winter and summer. They don’t bother to identify the root cause of the problem and solve it.

By insulating your home and preventing the air inside your home from escaping, you can enjoy a comfortable temperature in your home and at the same time, save on your energy bill.

Different Methods of Insulating a Home

Spray foam insulation and cellulose insulation are the common methods of insulating a home. Only a qualified and experienced energy expert can tell you which method is best suited for your home.

All methods of insulation have a value called the R-Value. It depends on the climate of the locality and the age of the house. The more is the R-value of a given method of insulation, the better it will protect the house.

The houses which need insulations of higher R-Value are those houses in the cold places and whose age is more than 10 years.

The Importance of Insulating Your Home

Energy, in whatever form it is, is costly. Using heating and cooling systems will cost considerable amounts of money. If your home can’t retain the warm or cooled air within the house, you are actually wasting your money on heating and cooling your home. Replacing only the windows and sealing your doors alone will not prevent the air from escaping.

Complete insulation of the house is the only way to ensure that warm and cooled air doesn’t escape to the outside. If you can retain the air inside your house, your energy consumption will be reduced and there will be savings on your energy bill.

In addition to all these benefits, you will have a comfortable life both in winter and summer. If you want to have a comfortable room temperature both in the winter and summer at less cost, you should ensure that no air leaks from your house. And the only way to make your home air tight is to insulate it completely.

5 Steps Process of Checking For Air Leaks At Home

It is not easy to imagine the extent to which your home utility bills can get inflated just due to leakage of air from different points. Could you believe that by just plugging these leaks you may achieve up to five to thirty per cent saving?

Leaks in the gas system do not just inflate your expenses; they pose a danger to life too. An unsealed door, a window or a heater vent; whatever be the source for such a leak, getting it fixed immediately by calling a qualified technician is absolutely necessary. Even the thinnest leaks can be detected by performing a pressure test.

The following are the5 steps involved in the process of checking for air leaks at your home.

Step 1

Heating and cooling systems, HVAC and furnaces installed in the house need to be turned off and damper of the fire place closed tightly. In case there is a gas water heater, this also should be turned off. Ensure that all the doors and windows as also skylights or vents too are closed properly.

Step 2

All the exhaust fans usually installed in places like, kitchens, bathrooms and laundry enclosures, should be turned on. In case exhaust fans are not installed, the purpose can be served to some extent by directing a simple portable fan outward through one open window.

First of all, check the fireplace by sensing if any stink or odor is emanating from the chimney. If it is, try to pinpoint the exact place it is coming out from after putting off the fans and seal it if you can.

You may proceed further without fixing the first leak located only if the stink is not too strong; if it is, it may be advisable not to take any chances and call for specialist services.

It is quite common to have leakages in the fireplaces in old houses due to neglect of the owners. It may be worthwhile in such situations to consider getting latest gas stoves installed rather than incurring frequent repair expenses.

Step 3

It is necessary to carry out a thorough check of the entire house for leaks. The house as an enclosure gets depressurized when all the fans are running and that leads to finding the leaks.

One simple way to manually detect leaks is by moving your wet hand around possible leakage points such as, windows, outlets in electrical fittings and gadgets, molding interfaces, attic and basement hatches; you may be able to locate a leak with your fingers particularly during cold. An incense stick or a candle flame too gives a good indication of a leak by quivering of smoke/flame.

Step 4

Use a ladder to check your attics; of course a good access to them helps a lot.

Step 5

Fixing the leaks is better done when the fans are off. Caulking fixes the leaks pretty well but may look unsightly. It is desirable that the leaks are fixed from both outside and inside to make your repair better effective. A duct tape too is very handy for the job for some areas.

Aerosol cans are highly recommended for insulation but needs extra care while using so as to prevent the material spreading all around. Take care to switch off power mains of your entire house before you fix any leaks in electric gadgets; precaution is always better than unwarranted valor!

Home DIY Solar Panel Guide

Before you install a home solar power system, the first thing you will need to do is check of air leaks at home. There is no point trying to supplement your home energy usage with solar power when cool or hot air is leaking from your house.

Remember, these air (cool or hot) was generated from a heater or air-conditioner which consume electricity. Get this fixed first before thinking about solar system.

Are you planning to make your own solar panel for your home solar power system? If you are, be sure to check out the Green DIY Energy program.

The program was specially created to teach you step by step how to construct a solar array on a shoestring budget. The instructions are in PDF files and also High Definition (HD) video recordings. Click on the link below and visit GreenDIYEnergy download page right now.

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Installing Solar Power System At Home – Money Worth Investing

You shouldn’t be reluctant to spend money to buy solar energy equipments for your home. The money you spend in installing solar panels at your home is a better investment than investing the money elsewhere.

You are benefited from your investment in solar power in two ways:

It helps you to lower your monthly electricity bill.
It raises the resale value of your house.

Now let us compare investment in solar energy with other common ways of investing money. To make the comparison easy, first we have to calculate the rate of return on the investment in solar energy.

If there is a reduction of $50 in your monthly electricity bill after installing solar panels at your home at a cost of $4000, your annual return rate is 15%. It means that you are gaining $600 yearly on an investment of $4,000.

At this rate, whatever amount is invested in solar energy will be collected back within a period of 80 months. This is the payback period. The payback period for other forms of investment is longer than that of solar energy.

On the other hand, if you spend $4000 on repairing and installing new facilities in your kitchen, you are not going to get anything in return and your return rate on your investment is 0.

If you deposit the money into your bank account, you will be getting $20 at the most as interest. You will be getting $ 240 over the year and it is a mere 6% return on your investment. The payback period in this case is a little over 16 years or 200 months.

Another investment option is in stocks and shares where the return can be much higher than any other form of investment. But investing in stock market is quite risky. There are chances for both making and losing huge amounts of money within a short time. Even experts in stock market advice moderation and caution while trading in shares.

Compared to investing money in stock market, investing in solar energy is much safer. Your money will not be lost in any way. Furthermore, the value of your house increases once you install solar energy panels at your house.

Even if you sell your house after installing solar panels, the value of your house will be much higher than the amount you spent to install solar panels on your house roof.

For example, if your house is valued at $50,000 and you spend an additional $4000 to install solar panels, the value of your house now will not be just 54,000. You can expect to get much more for your house than this because solar energy is becoming the trend of the day and people are willing to pay more for a house that already has solar energy installations.

Solar energy, like wind and hydro electricity, is a clean and green energy. Its production doesn’t pollute the environment. In a way, changing over to solar energy helps to reduce the production of carbon dioxide and other pollutants because every unit of solar energy produced is equal to a corresponding reduction in the number of units of electricity produced by the power grid.

Home DIY Solar Panel Guide

Are you planning to make your own solar panel for your home solar power system? If you are, be sure to check out the Green DIY Energy program.