How Drafty Windows Can Affect Your Home's HVAC System

Does your HVAC system struggle to keep you warm in the winter? Or in the summer, does it seem like your air conditioner can't get your home cool enough? 

You probably think there's something wrong with the HVAC system, and that may be true, but the issue could also be drafty windows and doors. Or, you may be getting drafts from other locations in your house, and those drafts could be compromising your efforts to heat or cool your home.

Let's look at how these drafts occur and what you can do about them.

How Drafts Originate

Through the years, a house will expand and contract with the weather so that even a house that was built with tight construction may develop tiny cracks. As the HVAC unit goes on and off, outside air can push its way through these cracks so that you have cold drafts in the winter, while in the summer, your air conditioning may be pulled outside.

The most common sites for these cracks to develop are:

  • Around window and door frames

  • Baseboards

  • Electric plugs in exterior walls

  • Holes in exterior walls for wires, cables, and pipes

  • Between window panes 

  • Beneath exterior doors

How to Find Drafty Windows and Other Openings in Your Home

To find where outside air is intruding, go around these locations and hold your hand there to see if you feel cold air. Or, you can light a stick of incense and pass it by these locations to see if the smoke wavers or the lit end glows.

How to Eliminate Drafts

You can eliminate drafts with caulk, insulation, or weatherstripping.

If you find gaps along baseboards, fill them with caulk. There is also a kind of spray insulation in a can that works well when sprayed into gaps around drafty windows, door frames, and baseboards. Apply weatherstripping around doors to keep out drafts.

Fill up holes to the outside for pipes, cables, and wires with insulation. 

Also, get your HVAC consultant to check your ducts to make sure they do not have holes or cracks in them.

For more on drafty windows or doors, contact Air Assurance of Broken Arrow.