How Can You Eco Upgrade Your Home?

If you're like most homeowners, you make upgrades around your house from time to time. If you're concerned about your environmental impact, you'll need to make upgrades that save energy, conserve water, and improve your home's efficiency. Here are some simple eco upgrade ideas that will make your home greener.

Get an Energy Audit

An energy audit helps you identify the home upgrades that will increase your energy efficiency the most. The auditor will carry out a blower door test and thermographic scanning to determine how airtight your home is and where you're losing energy. Making the improvements that the auditor suggests can yield significant energy savings.

Upgrade Your Window Treatments

Did you know that heat and cold air could creep into your home even when your windows are closed? Upgrade your blinds and curtains to better maintain your indoor temperature, prevent your HVAC system from working harder, and make your house more eco-friendly.

Install Attic Insulation

Proper insulation is an excellent way to improve energy efficiency. The attic is the best place to start because a lot of heat loss and gain occur through that part of your house. Loose-fill and batt insulation are good options. Add more insulation if your existing attic insulation is less than R-30 (8 inches of cellulose or 11 inches of rockwool or fiberglass).

Get a Rainwater Barrel

Mother Nature gives you lots of water every year. Put it into good use by harvesting rainwater and then watering your lawn and garden with it. Buy a rainwater barrel and leave it outside when rain has been forecast.

Invest in a Low-Flow Showerhead

The flow rate of showerheads made in 1992 or earlier could be 5.5 gallons per minute. You can reduce your water usage by investing in newer, low-flow models, which can cut down the flow rate to 2.5 gallons or less per minute.

Install a Programmable Thermostat

Make your house more environmentally friendly by using a programmable thermostat to control your heating and cooling system. It helps lower your utility bills.

These eco upgrades help you save money and the planet at the same time. If you want to make HVAC or plumbing upgrades in the Broken Arrow area, contact the award-winning experts at Air Assurance.

How to Locate Cold Air Leaks Around the House

Air leaks allow cold outside air to sneak into your home and steal your comfort and money. As the cold air gets into your home, your heating system is forced to work harder to deliver more hot air continuously, driving up your energy bills. The first step to winning the fight against cold air leaks is finding out where exactly the leakage is occurring. Here are some useful tips to help you achieve that.

Visual Inspection

The most common place for warm air to leak out of your home is around doors and windows. You can spot existing gaps by simply looking over door and window frames. If you see daylight around the frame, that's a sign of a leak. Having someone go outside at night and shine a flashlight over window and door frames will also reveal locations of large air leaks. If you observe from inside dark rooms, you'll see the light in the areas where the leaks are taking place.Also check for gaps and cracks around:

• electrical outlets

• baseboards

• switch plates

• light fixtures

• attic hatches

• vents and fans

Smoke Test

You can locate the leaks that are less easily visible by conducting a smoke test.

1. Turn off your furnace and any other combustion appliances on a cool, windy day.

2. Walk around the potential leak sites with a lit incense stick. You'll know you have a leak if the smoke wavers or is blown back into the room.

Call in a Pro

If you want an accurate gauge of your home's cold air leaks, hire a technician to conduct a professional energy audit. He or she can perform a thermal infrared scan or a blower door test to measure your home's airtightness and locate sources of air leaks.

The energy you lose through cold air leaks can be equivalent to leaving a window open throughout the winter, so locating and sealing these leaks is well worth the time and effort. If you want to truly maximize your Broken Arrow home's energy efficiency by scheduling an energy audit, contact the professionals at Air Assurance.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273.

Tips on Stopping Air Leaks in Your Home

Your Broken Arrow home may be plagued with air leaks, which can lead to a wide array of unpleasant problems. Poor indoor air quality, reduced home comfort, and increase in energy bills are just a few of the troubles that air leaks can cause. Fortunately, the following tips on stopping air leaks can increase your home’s energy efficiency, improve your indoor air and save you money on your heating and cooling costs.

Locating Air Leaks

Before you can stop the air leaks, you must first find them. Homes typically have leaks near windows, doors, floors, ductwork, baseboards, fireplaces, walls, outlets, rim and floor joints, ceilings, switch plates and the home’s foundation. Air leaks can also occur near pipes and vents that exit through basements and attics.

Stopping Air Leaks

Depending on where the air leak is located, it may only require a simple fix. For example, leaks around doors and windows can usually be fixed by installing inexpensive weather stripping available at hardware stores and home improvement centers. Expanding foam can fill in small holes and cracks in your foundation.

Homes with forced air heating and cooling often experience leaks due to damaged ductwork. If the problem area is located at an easy-to-reach location, you may be able to fix the problem with duct sealant. For areas that you cannot get to, such as behind walls and under floors, you will need the help of a professional to repair the damaged.

Energy Audit

Obtaining a whole-house energy audit from a respectable HVAC company is the first step in ensuring your home is running at maximum energy efficiency. During the audit, a highly trained technician will use the latest equipment to test your home’s efficient level. These tests will determine exactly where you are wasting energy and provide you with the information to go about stopping air leaks.

For more information about stopping air leaks, contact the experts at Air Assurance. We are a family-owned business providing heating, cooling, plumbing and air quality services to the Broken Arrow area since 1985.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). 

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

An Efficient Furnace Should Have an Efficient House

Having an efficient furnace goes a long way toward cutting your heating costs, but if your home lacks adequate insulation, has heat losses through the windows, or substantial air leaks, you may not notice as much savings. One of the best ways to learn if you could achieve lower energy bills is with an energy audit that you or a professional can perform.

A professional audit will show you where you have air leaks throughout your home's exterior and detect any leaks in the ductwork that cause high energy consumption. The auditing team will also evaluate your attic insulation to see if and where you need more. The centerpiece of the audit is a blower door test that pulls the air from your home and pulls it inside anywhere you have leaks and gaps. The professionals pinpoint the locations using thermographic equipment that shows the temperature difference between the incoming air.

You can perform your own audit by closing up your home and turning on the kitchen and bathroom fans. As you walk through your home with a candle or incense stick, note where the smoke wavers, indicating a leak. Once finished, you can seal smaller air leaks with suitable caulk. Expanding foam will seal larger leaks around the foundation or in the attic. Weatherstripping around exterior door frames will tighten the seal.

The recommended level of insulation in attics in this region stands R-38 or 16 inches. Increasing it will quickly help your efficient furnace run less. Thermal losses from either the roof or the windows increase the need for heat substantially.

Windows are a bit more challenging to weatherize, but doing so will cut your heating costs. Options include replacement with Energy Star or thermal windows, but if those aren't in the budget, consider plastic window kits that stop some of the heat transfer. Heavy drapes will also stop the losses, especially when they lie close to the window.

To learn more about increasing your energy savings with an efficient furnace, contact Air Assurance. We've provided top-notch HVAC services for Broken Arrow homeowners for more than 30 years.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). Image courtesy of Shutterstock