 Prepare Your Home Against Winter &
High Energy Costs
One of the best ways to prepare a home for the winter weather and high energy costs is to take time now, before winter arrives, to do some simple home maintenance.
The first and most important step in weatherizing a home is to stop air leaks. If air leaks aren't stopped first, other weatherizing measures like insulation will be a waste of effort and money. Stopping air leaks in a home can save as much as 40 percent on your home's heating and cooling costs.
Below are a variety of home tightening tasks that will save money, energy and make a home feel more comfortable. Don't feel that everything on the list has to be done. Each task will help contribute to the overall savings and comfort of the home.
The Main Floor
- Electric Outlets – Install foam gaskets behind all the light switches and electrical outlet covers, even interior walls. These simple foam gaskets help seal the holes created when the outlets and light switches were installed. Then use child safety plugs to keep the cold air from coming in through the sockets.
- Air Conditioners – Remove window air conditioners. If they can’t be removed, seal up the area around the unit with removable rope caulk and add an AC window insulation blanket.
- Windows and Doors – Weather strip and caulk all cracks between the wall and the window trim, especially under the windowsills. Replace broken glass and putty any loose windowpanes. Caulk around the moving parts of windows with a non-permanent caulk during the winter. This type of caulk can be easily removed in the spring.
- Recessed Lights and Bathroom Fans – Caulk around these from below with high-temperature flexible caulk.
- Other Exterior Wall Holes – Seal around all ceiling fixtures, heat registers, medicine cabinets, bath tubs, kitchen cabinets, drains and water pipes where they enter the wall and any other holes in exterior walls.
- Fireplace Dampers – Missing or poorly fitting dampers allow air to move freely up and down the chimney. Install a new damper or repair the existing one so it closes tightly.
Monsters in the Attic and Basement
The attic and basement are the biggest air leak culprits in homes. Sealing up the air leaks in these two areas is the best guarantee for a comfortable home.
- Doors and hatches to the attic – Weather strip the edges and insulate the backside of the attic door. Fold-down stairs can be covered with a lightweight box made of rigid insulation board.
- Holes in the attic floor – Don’t be surprised to find your attic has holes in the floor – especially around the outside walls, ducts, recessed lights or near plumbing utilities and other outside penetration. Also, look for dirty spots in your insulation, which often indicates holes where air leaks into and out of your house. You can seal the holes by stapling sheets of plastic over the holes and caulking the edges of the plastic. Carefully check for these trouble spots.
- Chimney – Any gap that runs vertically the height of the house around the chimney should be sealed at both the basement ceiling and attic floor levels. Seal these with sheet metal. This job may be best hired out.
- Basement – Use the masonry caulk to fill any cracks where the frames of the windows are set into the walls. Windows that are not used for summer ventilation, or as fire exits can be permanently caulked shut. Check along the sill plate and band joists as well as where the ducts pass through the basement ceiling.
The Tools
The basic tools needed to tighten up a home are a good all-purpose caulk, a caulking gun. Tiller caulk can be used for larger holes, while some may need to be filled with expanding foam. Weather stripping can be used for doors and windows and insulating gaskets may be used for electrical outlets.
Stop Drafts
Next, weatherize the rooms that are used the most, such as the living room, family room and bedrooms. Caulk around windows, doors, baseboards, lighting fixtures and any other cracks in the walls or ceiling. These holes may seem small, but their net impact is huge. It is estimated that the accumulative effect of all the cracks and holes in the average U.S. home is equal to having a large window open.
Caulking also stops drafts and, therefore, makes the room feel more comfortable. This reduces the urge to reach for the thermostat and turn it up, which reduces energy consumption and cost.
More Information and Additional Resources
Some of this information was adapted from the American Council on an Energy Efficient Economy's publication, Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings, 7th Edition, the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Network as well as Homemade Money by Richard Heede and staff of the Rocky Mountain Institute.
Additional information on home energy savings can be found in the Home Series: Insulation booklet available on the Iowa Energy Center’s Web site, www.energy.iastate.edu or by calling (515) 294-8819.
The Iowa Energy Center is a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing Iowa’s energy efficiency and the use of renewable fuels.
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