I learned a hard lesson regarding the required use of spreader bars when lifting heavy angular objects with a crane: I was placed in harm’s way and witnessed the destruction of over $20,000 worth of property during a construction mishap. Fortunately, following some tense seconds, there were zero injuries and several lessons learned.
You can reduce your home's heating and cooling costs through proper insulation and air sealing techniques. These techniques will also make your home more comfortable.
The air tightness of a building can be determined by using several methods. The PFT (PerFluorocarbon tracer gas) technique and blower door test both provide information about air leakage and energy loss.
Energy auditors may use thermography — or infrared scanning — to detect thermal defects and air leakage in building envelopes.
Professional energy auditors use blower door tests to help determine a home's air tightness.
Professional energy audits generally go into great detail. The energy auditor should do a room-by-room examination of the residence, as well as a thorough examination of past utility bills.
You can easily conduct a home energy audit yourself. With a simple but diligent walk-through, you can spot many problems in any type of house. When auditing your home, keep a checklist of areas you have inspected and problems you found. This list will help you prioritize your energy efficiency upgrades.
A home energy audit is the first step to assess how much energy your home consumes and to evaluate what measures you can take to make your home more energy efficient. An audit will show you problems that may, when corrected, save you significant amounts of money over time. During the audit, you can pinpoint where your house is losing energy. Audits also determine the efficiency of your home's heating and cooling systems. An audit may also show you ways to conserve hot water and electricity. You can perform a simple energy audit yourself, or have a professional energy auditor carry out a more thorough audit.
Energy recovery ventilation systems provide a controlled way of ventilating a home while minimizing energy loss. They reduce the costs of heating ventilated air in the winter by transferring heat from the warm inside air being exhausted to the fresh (but cold) supply air. In the summer, the inside air cools the warmer supply air to reduce ventilation cooling costs.
Balanced ventilation systems, if properly designed and installed, neither pressurize nor depressurize a house. Rather, they introduce and exhaust approximately equal quantities of fresh outside air and polluted inside air, respectively.
Supply ventilation systems work by pressurizing the building. They use a fan to force outside air into the building while air leaks out of the building through holes in the shell, bath and range fan ducts, and intentional vents (if any exist).
Exhaust ventilation systems work by depressurizing the building. By reducing the inside air pressure below the outdoor air pressure, they extract indoor air from a house while make-up air infiltrates through leaks in the building shell and through intentional, passive vents.
