Owners of older homes often face the challenge of trying to maintain a comfortable winter temperature without going bankrupt on power bills. Many times houses that have not been properly sealed to the outdoors become cold and drafty, making them unpleasant to live in and expensive to maintain. By successfully detecting and repairing the areas where your home loses heat, you can increase your home's warmth and save a bundle on energy costs for many winters to come.
Instructions
1. Walk around the interior of your home on a cold day. Inspect the windows, doors, outlets, light switches, fireplace, dryer vents and phone hookups for obvious cracks or gaps. Feel around each spot to see if it's colder than the surrounding area. Check to see if you feel air movement.
2. Measure the insulation in your attic. If you live in a cold area, your attic insulation should be 12 to 18 inches thick to prevent heat from escaping from your home. While you're in the attic, examine any exposed insulation for spots that appear dirty. Dirty sections of insulation indicate that air is being continually pulled through the fibers, leaving behind dust and other particles.
3. Hold a lit incense stick near any areas where you suspect a leak. If the smoke rises vertically, the area is sealed properly. If it moves horizontally, a slight draft is present. If the smoke disappears entirely, your home is experiencing major heat loss from that area. Use this method to check each problematic area.
4. Close each window and exterior door on a sheet of paper. If you can pull the paper out of the crack without tearing it, heat is likely escaping through the opening. Check each window and the top, bottom and sides of each door.
5. Ask a friend to stand just outside the house (after dark) while you run a flashlight around each door and window frame. Any visible light indicates a major leak.
6. Schedule an infrared scan of your home. During these scans, professionals take infrared photos of the interior of your house. The brightness of the infrared light indicates the warmest and coldest areas of the house, with any major drafts showing up as dark spots on the photographs.
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