How to Spot Heat Loss in Your Home

Heat Loss
Heat loss is when the air inside your home escapes into the outdoors. Heat loss may not seem like a big problem for your home to experience, but overtime this heat loss can lead to much higher costs for your heating and cooling and can significantly increase the energy usage in your home. Because home damage, the age of your home, and climate conditions all have a factor in the heat loss in your home, it is important to know how to detect these issues. If you are ready to save on energy costs and stabilize the heating and cooling of your home, let Superior Home Improvements, serving all of central Kentucky, show you how to spot heat loss in your home.

Air Leaks
If you feel a draft in your home, it is most likely due to an air leak. Air leaks can add 10%-20% more energy usage to your home every single year. To prevent this increase in energy usage, and thus save money of energy costs, locating areas of air leakage in your home is essential. Gaps along baseboards, the corners of walls, and where the ceiling meets the wall are all areas that are prone to air leaks. Inspect your home and monitor the temperature around these areas if you suspect that you have an air leak. Other areas of your home that may show signs of air leakage are windows, doors, fireplaces, and electrical outlets. To fix air leaks, plugging and caulking holes and cracks is the only way to remedy the issue. When sealing cracks and holes, make sure you are aware of the backdraft that may occur, which can potentially keep dangerous chemicals from caulking circulating in your home. 

Insulation
Another area of the home where heat loss is common is in the insulation. Heat loss through the ceiling and walls of your home may occur if the insulation is damaged or old. If you live in an older home, it is very likely that you will need to have newer insulation installed to make up for the outdated material that was originally used. When building a new home, ensure that you choose the highest quality insulation and also ensure that the insulation is installed correctly. Make sure any gaps in insulation are covered with foam caulk to ensure full coverage. 

Heating and Cooling Equipment
Inspect your heating and cooling equipment to ensure that no heat or cool air is leaking out through your pipes before it goes into circulation in your home. If one of your rooms is significantly colder or warmer throughout the year, there is more than likely a problem with the heating and cooling equipment near that area of the house. Check all the duct work while your heating and air conditioning unit is running. If you feel leaks near the seams of the duct work, this is an indication that there are probably more areas in your ductwork that are experiencing the same type of leaks. Sealing these leaks is easy to do by yourself, but can be more difficult depending on how accessible your ductwork is. As a rule of thumb, and to prevent heat loss more easily, if your heating and cooling unit is more than 15 years old an annual inspection is necessary. 

Superior Home Improvements
If you have found signs of heat loss in your home, or believe that you are experiencing heat loss in your home and are ready to have the problem completely resolved, Contact Superior Home Improvements today. Located in Lexington, Kentucky and serving all of Central Kentucky, our team of experienced professionals can help you tackle all your home improvement tasks. With an A+ rating from the BBB and a member of Angie’s List, we can assure you that our services will meet all your standards.