Save your heating and AC dollars by sealing your home better

[EnergyMan]

Most of us have learned to adjust our thermostats so that we use less heating or AC, but that's where our strategies usually end. There are so many options for conserving energy, but i'm just gonna focus on one at this time...

Stop Venting Your Heated or Cooled Air Outside

Yes, many of you are forcing your conditioned air outside, while at the same time, you are sucking in unconditioned air. You can't eliminate this, but you can reduce it.

Bathroom Exhaust Fans: They generally exhaust 60 to 100 cfm of air. This means that as each minute passes, 60 to 100 cubic feet of your conditioned air is being vented outside and a corresponding 60 to 100 cfm of air is being sucked in through any cracks around doors, windows, etc.

While showering or making use of the bathroom, this movement of air is necessary, but once you leave the bathroom, only a few additional minutes of time are necessary.

To resolve any issue where your bathroom exhaust fan is left running for hours, install a simple Timer Switch that can't be set for more than an hour (a half hour is generally all the time you need). This guarantees that the fan will shut down at some point and will stop venting air you paid to either heat or cool.

Dryer Vents: There are two issue with dryer vents.

#1 They allow air to enter your home when the dryer is not running (yes, those thin little, warped vinyl flaps may keep out birds, but that's about all).

#2 They exhaust tremendous amounts of air when they are running.

To overcome these issues, first you want to replace the dryer vent with a dryer vent seal that closes fully when the dryer is not in use. This totally eliminates any backdrafts. Next, you want to change your drying habits and make sure you are not running the dryer on frigid winter nights or on the hottest, humid afternoons.

If there any other ideas on how you can save on heating and air conditioning by sealing your home, I welcome your response.

[deltatee]

The most important factor IMO to energy savings...is in the home, and especially the older home, there is so much waste of energy through the windows.
#1 ...Older drafty loose fitting seals and even caulking, can be detrimental to trying to heat or cool a interior efficiently.
Sometimes, the addition of widow plastic film kits, are a neccesity as a bandaid to help infiltration of heat / cold.

The windows in my own home...circa 1965..have been upgraded in 1975 with anderson product (s).
Those windows, and the technology in the year they were built, are in todays standards...outdated!

DW loves light, and most of the replacements were sized super bigger. Wow! More heat loss. If it were up to me...and most men...I think windows size doesn't make a beans. IMO anyway.

The casement swing out are ok, but the double hung, regular sliding, are bears for sealing properly. If I had to do it over again, I would not use the double hung window.

Window seal film kits are cheap, and save drafty conditions. I will be Soon..purchasing them, for the leaky windows for now anyway. The way I figured....if i added all the area of cracks and draft openings...it could add to the size of like a 12inch x 12inch opening to the ouside ALL THE TIME! ....NOT GOOD...by all means. Yeah! I would love to close that opening, and make a good start in trying to make my home a lot more energy efficient, and most of all...comfortable.

Even heavy window coverings such as drapes, are a help!