When we bought our 1950’s bungalow, it was really energy inefficient. We knew this when we bought it, so that was no surprise. Open house was held in late summer and the house was a heat trap. All the windows had to be kept open in order to keep it cool and make the potential buyers comfortable. At the same time, the provincial AND federal government were offering rebates for making certain energy improvements in your home. There was just no way we were going to pass up double the free money!
We called in the energy advisor to perform an energy audit on our house the day we took possession of the house. In the process of evaluating our energy rating (you need to have a before and after report to claim your rebates), he walked through the house and pointed out all the areas we could improve its energy efficiency. It’s amazing all the things you never think of doing that could really make a huge impact on how well insulated your home is.
There are several things you can do yourself by picking up some things from your local hardware store and rolling up your sleeves. But there are others that will require a professional to do the work for you.
1. Install gaskets in all your outlets and light switches.
Gaskets are these foam backers that you can pick up at the hardware store. They’re pre-punched to the shape of your outlets and light switches. You remove the outlet and light switch covers, insert the gasket over the electrical boxes, and replace the covers. This is the simplest thing you can do to improve the efficiency in your home.
2. Plug unused outlets with outlet caps.
When outlets are not in use, a lot of draft can flow through those small holes. (I know, unbelievable, right??) To block the loss of air, plug those unused outlets with childproof outlet caps. It’s a small improvement, but every bit goes a long way! These caps are especially great if you have growing children who like to stick their fingers in the sockets.
3. Caulk all gaps along baseboards and door frames.
Or remove moldings and caulk along the wall and floor. To complete the energy audit, the house has to be completely sealed off of all outside air. The windows are shut closed as well as the exterior doors. A fan is installed at the front or main exterior door that seals off the house and pushes any air through. This process really shows all the air leaks in your house. Obviously, there was a lot of air blowing around the old single-glazed windows, but surprisingly, I also felt a lot of draft coming from the baseboards! If you’re unwilling to tear out all the moldings in your house to seal the cracks between the floors and walls, then just leave the moldings on and caulk at the top and bottom of all the baseboards. I felt almost no air coming out of our baseboards when we did the second report.
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4. Patch holes along exterior walls.
We didn’t have a lot of this problem, but if there are any cracks or holes in your exterior walls, they should be patched up to prevent drafts.
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5. Weatherstrip access doors to attic.
Our attic is just a crawl space accessed by a hatch in the ceiling. As such, the attic is often the draftiest part of the house since no one goes up there. To keep the living areas of your home well-insulated, install weatherstripping at the access doors. It’s basically a thick foam tape that can easily be applied to the perimeter of the door. That’ll keep the draft out!
6. Install timer on all bathroom fans.
To keep mold away in the bathroom, the fan needs to remain on for 30 minutes after a shower. Without a timer on the fans, you could easily waste a lot of energy by letting it run if you forget to turn it off. (And you will forget more often than you think you will.) Installing a timer is an easy DIY that will save you loads of brain memory and energy.
7. Install dimmers and/or sensors for all lights.
Putting your lights on dimmers is a really easy DIY job and will save you as much as 20% on your energy bill each year. Sensors also work great for rarely used areas like closets, hallways, foyer, or spare bedrooms. Luckily, the previous owner upgraded all the lighting to be dimmable, so that was one less thing for us to worry about. Also, don’t overlook your portable lamps. You can find dimmer extension cords at Ikea.
8. Close the fireplace flue damper.
Our wood burning fireplace actually can’t be used because the previous owner had wanted to install a gas fireplace, but never did. As a result, we have a wood burning fireplace with a gas line running through it. It’s just this big drafty pit in the middle of the house. We were advised to block the opening with plywood and seal it up. Now, a plywood covered fireplace is not exactly the most attractive look for any home, so we opted to cover the flue with Styrofoam. This was easy to cut to size and lightweight to hold in place as you taped the material in place. Then we covered the entire Styrofoam with tape, just to cover any draft flowing through the holes of the Styrofoam.
9. Replace appliances with Energy Star rating.
If you still have inefficient appliances, consider upgrading these. This includes the hot water tank! Almost all the new appliances are Energy Star rated, so there should be no problem finding one in your budget. Luckily, all our appliances were modern and in good shape when we moved in.
10. Seal and insulate recessed lights.
This is another area of the house where you’d be surprised by the amount of air leaks. To prevent air leaks, you need to go into the attic to cover the lights with a light cover and then seal the the edges around the cover with foam insulation. As we didn’t want to go into the (scary) attic, we didn’t make this improvement in our home.
11. Replace single glazed windows with double glazed.
The house had its original single glazed windows with the aluminum frame. Just the sight of those brings back memories of all the old houses I lived in where I had to blast the thermostat to 75 around the clock in the winter just to feel warm in my home. We knew immediately that these old windows had to go. Soon after our energy advisor left, the window guy came to measure all the windows. I don’t know what the difference in energy bill costs are pre-new windows, but our window guy said his energy bill was cut in half when he replaced the windows in his house. That’s quite the savings!
DIY-IT: If it’s not in your budget to replace the windows, you can caulk and install weatherstripping around the perimeter of your existing windows.
12. Replace exterior doors with solid core.
Our front door was an old, rotting, hollow-core door when we bought the house. My father-in-law always worried that anyone could easily kick the door down, so his housewarming gift to us was a new front door. In fact, all the exterior doors in the house were in poor condition and as we much as we needed to make our home energy efficient, we also needed to make it safe. It was a no brainer to replace them all with solid core doors, which were installed with tight fitting frames and thresholds.
DIY-IT: New doors too expensive for you? Make door draft stoppers to improve the insulation or replace thresholds with pliable sealing gaskets.
13. Insulate the attic.
We have really poor insulation in the attic. This is a pricey improvement, so we never got to insulate it before the deadline to get all the improvements done. I wonder how much more efficient our house would be if we had a better insulated attic.
Despite the fact we didn’t check everything off the list, our house feels noticeably different from the time we first toured it during the open house. Our house is so nice and cozy in the winter and cool in the summer. No more heat trap! We’ve even had friends comment on how our house is cooler inside than it is outside during the summer. And we’re OK with that.
Have you made any energy efficient improvements to your home? What other tips can you share with us?
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