Investments In Winter Home Efficiency

Posted on Wednesday, November 16th, 2011

If you have read your way through 10 Affordable Ways To Winterize Your Home and 6 Free Ways To Winterize Your Home, than you only have two options left to get even more winter home efficiency: either move into a new, more efficient home, or make investments in your current home.

How are you losing heat?

If your windows are off kilter, or your door isn’t squared with the door frame, you will know exactly what needs to be replaced to lower your energy bills. But sometimes the investment that will lower your energy bills the most isn’t obvious. Winter heat loss can occur 3 ways: convection, conduction, and radiation. Loss of heat is the quickest with convection, like an air leak. You can also lose heat through conduction when your insulation is inadequate. The third way you can lose heat is through radiation, when you don’t have a radiative barrier reflecting it back into your home.

So if you have drafty doors or windows, replace them first to reduce convective heat loss which will make the biggest difference in your energy bill. Normally, doors and windows also lose much more heat from convection than walls. Upgrading to a newer model of insulated vinyl windows will cut down on heat loss from convection and conduction dramatically.

Replacing the insulation in your walls is often cost prohibitive, but adding insulation to your attic rafters is extremely affordable. Blowing another inch or two of cellulose on top of your current insulation is an easy DIY job. The US Dept of Energy has put together a detailed resource and guide for people considering adding insulation to their attic.

Properly minimizing convection and conduction can be expensive, but blocking radiative heat loss is very affordable. All you need is a radiative barrier. Radiative barriers have been around for nearly a century, but the aerospace program really boosted their status. Today, they are common in household attics. In the summer, they block the suns heat and in the winter, they reflect heat back into the house.

How are you making heat?

Preventing heat loss is only one side of the equation. The other side is how efficiently your home is producing and using heat. New furnaces and water heaters are at least 20% more efficient than previous models. If you have a water heater or furnace over 10 years old, it is actually costing you more to run them, than to replace it.

That wraps up this series. Do what you can for free and spend a couple dollars to get you by. Use the money you saved on your energy bills to invest in even higher efficiency products. After investing in home efficiency, you will be able to accumulate savings that can be put towards things like retirement, college tuition, or that much needed vacation you’ve been dreaming about. Start small and think big.

If you have any questions on how to begin, feel free to give us a call at the number above.

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