Do it: Winterize
Published 12:54 pm Friday, December 13, 2013
- Do it: Winterize
It’s the perfect time of year to spend a couple of hours on small, do-it-yourself winterizing projects to reduce your heating bill and increase the warmth and coziness of your home.
We checked in with Vern Rice, energy services supervisor at Central Electric Cooperative based in Redmond (www.cec-co.com), for tips about DIY energy savings. He gave us some great ideas about how to seal up air leaks around recessed lighting, plumbing and at doors and windows.
“Air leaks account for 20 to 30 percent of the total heat loss in a structure. Sealing them up is worth doing, takes very little time and the material costs are not great. Do your sealing at the ceiling first,” Rice said.
Time:
About two to three hours, depending on how many recessed lights you have, or how many exhaust fans, windows and doors you want to tackle.
Cost: less than $50
Supplies:
• Caulk (about $5 for a 5-oz tube)
• Caulk gun ($4-$20)
• Insulating foam sealant (about $5 per can)
• Window insulation kits ($10.99 for a four-window kit)
• Door weather strip (about $7-$10)
• Garage door weather strip (about $12)
• Foundation vent plugs (styrofoam) (about $6)
Step 1: Seal recessed lighting cans
Recessed light fixtures that attach to the ceiling and into the attic often leak air. “There’s typically a good-sized gap between the sheetrock and the fixture. Take the trim ring off, and you’ll see the gap. Caulk or spray foam the gap to seal the can light to the sheetrock. If it’s a quarter-inch or less, use caulking; if it’s bigger, use expanding foam or some sort of sheetrock or paneling. You can get creative to plug the hole,” Rice said. (It’s a good idea to practice spraying foam on a piece of cardboard to see how much it expands before you start the job.)
Do not close up vent holes in the light fixture with caulk or foam. The vents are there to dissipate heat from the lightbulb; you want to seal around the can light where it attaches to the drywall, and leave the vent holes open, Rice explained.
Step 2: Look around
Look at exhaust fans, and if you find a gap between the drywall and the fan when you remove the trim, caulk the edge of the hole or patch it with foam, drywall or patching material. Look under kitchen and bathroom cabinets, where plumbing enters or exits. If there’s a gap between the pipe and the wall, warm air is escaping, and cold air may be entering. See step one for how to close gaps.
If you have a forced air furnace, there are registers on the floor. Lift them up to see if there’s a gap between the wood subfloor and the ductwork. “It’ll look similar to the recessed light. Get out your tube of caulk or caulk gun, and fill that gap,” Rice said.
Step 3: Outside foundation vents covered
When temperatures are consistently cold in the fall, go outside and install foundation vent plugs. Vents should be open in the spring, summer and fall, and closed when it’s cold. “You don’t want that freezing cold air to circulate under your house. It’ll keep your floors colder and will increase the likelihood of a freezing pipe,” Rice said.
Step 4: Storm door and windows and draft stoppers
Install a storm door if you own one, or put a rolled up towel or a purchased or homemade “draft snake” at the base of doors and windows to prevent drafts. (You can make a “snake” by sewing up a long, narrow piece of fabric, and filling it with dry beans or cat-box litter.) Weather stripping and door sweeps to seal out cold air are available at hardware and big box stores.
Install temporary plastic storm windows. They come in inexpensive kits and are easy to install. A hairdryer is needed for hot air to shrink the plastic sheets to fit tightly over the window.
“Do common sense things like closing your drapes at night to create that little barrier between you and that cold window to reduce heat loss and increase your comfort level. Turn down your thermostat at night or if you’re gone during the day. Even though your furnace has to run longer to bring the temperature back up, overall you’re saving money,” Rice said.
Step 5: Adjust ceiling fan direction and keep registers open
Ceiling fans have a switch or pull chain to change the direction of the blades. In the winter, you want to pull the cooler air up. “The cool air hits the ceiling and the warm air gets whooshed down the outside walls, which are the coldest walls in the house. You’re bringing the warm air to the 6-foot-high level where we live,” Rice said.
If you have a furnace or heat pump, keep all registers at least partly open, even if they’re in a back bedroom or a room that’s not used much. “Forced air systems are made to heat the entire building. When you close them off, you throw the pressure in the duct system off balance. You can actually increase duct leakage and heat loss by closing registers. On that same furnace, set the fan switch to auto in the winter to prevent the fans from running continuously. That reduces electricity use and reduces duct leakage,” Rice said.
For more energy saving information, look at the Central Electric Cooperative and Pacific Power websites (www.cec-co.com and www.pacific power.net), and consider a home energy audit for more tips about how to conserve energy and have a more comfortable home during the cold months.
Editor’s note: Check back every other week for do-it-yourself projects.