Most of us close our windows and draw the curtains when winter hits to keep the cold out, but sometimes it seems as though those winter winds follow us indoors. If your home feels drafty during the winter, you might be tempted to blame your windows; yet in many cases, the root cause is actually something less apparent.
Start with a Home Energy Audit
If you want to put an end to drafts in your home, scheduling a home energy audit is a great first step. During an energy audit, a home performance expert will conduct a thorough assessment of your home to locate areas where your home is wasting energy. This includes:
a survey of your home’s exterior
an inspection of your home’s HVAC systems, windows, and insulation levels
combustion safety testing on all combustion appliances
efficiency analyses on your furnace, boiler, and/or water heater
blower door testing to determine air leakage levels
infrared camera analysis to locate air leaks and insulation gaps
a basic duct leakage assessment
After your home energy audit, you’ll receive an audit report which includes written observations about your home, along with recommendations on how you can improve your home. If you’ve been putting up with drafts in your home, you can expect to find out exactly where air is entering and exiting your home, along with which home improvements will stop those drafts once and for all.
It Could Be Your Attic
Though your audit report is your number-one resource for determining what is causing the drafts in your home, it’s good to know a thing or two about what causes drafts. Often, the problem is a poorly sealed and insulated attic. Why? Due to the stack effect, warm air is forced to rise to the uppermost areas in your home. This warm air then escapes through poorly sealed areas in your attic, producing a giant vacuum effect which sucks cold outside air in through the lower areas of your home. You experience this as drafts in your home. That is why we often recommend air sealing and high performance insulation in the attic for drafty homes.
Does Your Home Feel Drafty?
Improving home comfort doesn’t necessarily involve replacing your windows. Drafts can be be traced to a number of factors, such as a poorly sealed attic, insulation gaps, leaky ductwork, and poorly sealed windows. If you’re tired of putting up with drafts, let an expert at Home Energy Medics diagnose your home. We’ll come to your home in Arlington or the greater DC metro area and help you determine which home fixes will yield the greatest impact at the lowest cost.