Weather Stripping Challenge to Lower Your AC Bills

Do you remember standing in front of the refrigerator holding the door open while contemplating what to eat? Drives you crazy now to see your children do that same thing, doesn’t it?

Well, air conditioning the house when you have leaks is very much like holding the fridge door open. It’s expensive; and worse than just being expensive, it’s an expense that you could control with appropriate investigation and management. We all have many expenses we can not control; it’s wise to take control to limit spending where we can.

The Sherlock Holmes of Air Conditioning Leaks

If you want to lower your AC bills, you have to become a detective in your home. Before purchasing materials, walk your home and find leaks. We suggest that you take notes, so you remember where you found leaks and what the solution to them is.

When you have completed your research, you will have a full list of all the holes and what is needed to do to correct them so you can make one trip to the hardware store.

One way of adding a little extra to your review is to carry a lit incense stick on the investigation. Trace the outline of each window and door with the hand holding the stick. When you see the smoke move, you have found a leak.

Don’t like the incense idea? Carry a moist towel with you. When you reach a window or door, rub your hand against the towel to transfer some moisture to your hand. Move your hand around the window or door. The moisture on your hand makes you more sensitive to moving air so you can detect leaks.

Examining Doors

Check each exterior door in the house. Stand in front of the doors and visually examine the perimeter where the door meets the frame. If you can see sunlight through any spaces, you are losing air conditioning.

Be particularly diligent when examining the foot of the door. Worn or damaged door jams may be letting your valuable cold air out.

Stripping Your Windows

Your home has many windows to review. To fully examine them, you will have to open each to see the condition of the weather stripping. You may think you just replaced it, but the time slips by pretty quickly in home-ownership. It may be time to weather strip again.

Beyond weather stripping, how do the windows look? If you see rotting or severely damaged frames, they could be costing you money. For an experienced carpenter to come in and repair or rebuild the frames may be out of budget for now, but you might be able to use caulk to close the cracks until you can work a carpenter into the budget.

Sliding Doors

In warm weather, particularly if you have children in the home, the sliding door may be more like a revolving door, constantly in motion letting people in and out. We don’t recommend limiting the number of times people may enter or exit the house each day, but a little re-training here may help the bottom line.

Yes, by all means, examine the door for weather stripping needs. However, you may profit even more substantially by teaching everyone, again, for we know you have already learned the entire household before, that they must fully close the door each time they enter or exit.

Standing with the door open talking to people outside is not an option, nor is the reverse. Step outside and entirely close the door to chat or step inside and fully lock the door. Anything less is money out the sliding door.

Enacting Solutions

You may profit from a review of new technology for inhibiting drafts. Sure, you can do what you have done in the past, but the technology of home repair is in constant flux. New materials, new approaches, and new solutions emerge almost daily. You may discover that none of the innovations are appropriate for you today, but you have learned something new that you may apply to another project; your research is not wasted.

One of the more substantial fixes is the doors. You can make some adjustments with the screws for a better fit. However, warming and cooling can alter both the shape of the frame and the shape of the door so that they are no longer a good match. The best solution may be a new door. A good enough solution may be using a draft dodger.

You often see draft dodgers for sale in the winter. Sometimes they are filled with sweet-scented cedar, other times they contain sand or cotton. They are advertised to keep out the cold, but they can work equally well at maintaining the cold. They may be an economical solution to your door leaks.

Even less expensive and less attractive, you can use old towels pushed up against the doors. They are effective, but you do spend time rearranging them every time anyone enters or leaves, however, they accomplish their task and save you money.

Gauging Results

Check your bills before and after you make your air conditioning saving changes. If you don’t see much improvement, you may need to have your HVAC professional review the house for more significant issues.

Odds are, your efforts will yield improvements either in a cooler room or lower bills…and your repairs are not just a single season trick…when the heat comes on, you will continue to save as all the leaks you patched will keep cold out as efficiently as they keep cold inside your home.

If you do need professional assistance in the Alexandria, VA area, don’t hesitate to call Cyprus Air Heating and Cooling; they will do an evaluation and give you and estimate of the work you need. Call (703) 765-9400 today.