October 30 marks Weatherization Day, which is a great opportunity for homeowners to assess the performance of their home’s building envelope.
Perhaps one of the most overlooked yet critical components of weatherizing a home is its insulation and air sealing needs. A well-insulated and air sealed home not only keeps the entire structure comfortable, but also helps reduce energy usage, saving homeowners money on costly utility bills.
Experts agree that strengthening a home’s building envelope should be done before buying new energy efficient appliances. As John Fernandez, Director of the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative puts it, weatherizing your home should be “absolutely the first step to take before you do anything else,” adding “the last thing you want to do is have a really high-efficiency, low-carbon system that’s just pumping heat or air conditioning into a building that’s just leaking.”
Clark Public Utilities Public Information Officer Dameon Pesanti agrees. “All the money you spend on other investments like a new heating system … you’re not gonna get the best value out of it because you’re making heat and it’s just disappearing, or it’s just literally going out of the walls … or the air conditioning you’re making in the summertime is just getting converted to heat so quickly by the outside,” said Pesanti.
Pesanti goes on to say that air leaks, which are hard to notice, tend to be the biggest culprit responsible for a home’s heat loss during the winter. “I’ve heard anecdotally from weatherization companies that if they go through an air seal like a whole house … it’s almost like death by 1,000 cuts. All the little air leaks that they find are the equivalent of having a window open in one room. Imagine that in December, leaving a window open all day long, all night long,” Pesanti said.
The benefits of weatherizing a home are plenty, yet according to the Department of Energy (DOE)-backed Advanced Building Construction Collaboration, 75 million housing units, over half of the country’s housing stock, are under-weatherized and in need of sealing and insulation upgrades.
When it comes to insulating and air sealing, spray foam is the only product on the market that does both. Its innovative properties keep conditioned air inside where it belongs, keeping your home more comfortable and reducing energy prices.
IBE is proud to celebrate Weatherization Day and do our part to ensure more homeowners understand the benefits of a strong building envelope.