Proper air sealing in your home is a pivotal aspect of your energy conservation efforts, exerting a profound influence on your utility expenses. By addressing air leakage at various points within your home, you have the potential to achieve savings of up to 30% on your energy costs. Moreover, it's essential to recognize that air leaks are a major source of discomfort, moisture issues, and even diminished air quality.

Here are some critical insights into the locations where air leakage occurs within an average American home:

• Ceilings, walls, and floors account for 31% of air leakage.
• Ducts contribute to 15% of air leakage.
• Fireplaces are responsible for 14% of air leakage.
• Plumbing penetrations represent 13% of air leakage.
• Fans and vents result in 4% of air leakage.
• Electrical outlets contribute to 2% of air leakage.

These figures provide a clear picture of the most important areas to target for air sealing. However, Attica Green Solutions technicians take a comprehensive approach by pinpointing the exact locations of air loss and assessing your entire home's energy consumption. They will recommend ways to enhance your home's energy efficiency.

The exterior of your home is often referred to as the "envelope" or the "shell." Properly sealing your home against both air infiltration (air leaking in from the outside) and air exfiltration (air leaking from inside the house to the outside) is instrumental in reducing your energy expenditures.

As a homeowner, you can significantly improve your home's energy efficiency by sealing as many entry points as possible. This includes examining seams between the top of the foundation wall and wood framing, doors and windows, along baseboards, electrical receptacles, switches on exterior walls, fireplaces, attic hatchway doors, pull-down stairs, whole-house fan installations, and pipe and wire penetrations.

Here are some specific areas that warrant attention:

• Baseboards and Floors: Gaps between baseboards and hard floors can be sealed with latex caulk.
• Gaskets: Cold switches and electrical outlets are indicative of potential drafts. You can block these drafts from the inside of your house by installing affordable insulated gaskets (please ensure to turn off the power before installation to avoid electrical shock).
• Recessed Ceiling Lights: Older types of recessed lighting can be highly leaky and challenging to make airtight. Building an airtight box around the light's housing with flame-resistant material, such as sheet metal or drywall, is often the most effective solution. Ensure compliance with fire code regulations.
• Attic Floor: The top-floor ceiling functions as a containment barrier for rising warm air. Any small openings or gaps in this area can serve as outlets for warm air to escape, creating a negative pressure inside your house. To maintain comfort, you'll need to heat the air that replaces it, leading to increased furnace usage and higher costs. Inspect the attic floor for cracks, holes, or small openings, as addressing these issues can result in substantial energy savings.
• Fireplace: The careful sealing of this area is frequently overlooked, yet gaps around fireplaces allow heated or cooled air to escape easily. Thoroughly inspect your fireplace for any holes that need sealing with spray foam, fireproof caulk, or other suitable filler.
• Weather Stripping: Check the weather stripping around your doors to prevent drafts and keep heating and cooling bills in check.
• Attic: Sealing and insulating your attic are vital steps in ensuring that your home is properly air sealed. While insulation helps reduce heat loss, it doesn't address air flow. Insulation can obscure cracks, gaps, and holes through which pressurized air from your home escapes into the attic. Staining in the insulation often indicates an air leak.
• Chimneys: Building codes often mandate a minimum two-inch gap between flammable material and masonry or metal. These gaps are frequently left unfilled, creating a hole that extends from the basement to the attic. This issue can be resolved by closing the gap with a non-flammable material and fireproof caulk.
• Pull-Down Attic Stairs: This is typically the largest opening in the attic floor and can allow a significant amount of air to escape. In some cases, the opening around pull-down stairs can be as large as 40 square inches. Proper sealing can be challenging, but adding compressible self-stick foam tape along the upper edges of the plywood door can help reduce air leakage.

A professional home energy assessment conducted by Attica Green Solutions is the most comprehensive way to evaluate your energy consumption. It provides you with a thorough assessment of your home's energy performance. While you can perform a basic energy assessment yourself by carefully inspecting your entire home for air leaks and assessing the efficiency of your appliances, an audit performed by a professional energy auditor using diagnostic equipment offers more detailed information and an action plan.