Why Your Energy Savings Are Gone with the Wind

Having a drafty home can be a big problem. It can mean having a hard time keeping it warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Since you’re constantly replacing the conditioned air that is escaping, it can really be a waste of energy and drive up your utility bills. Air leaks may also prove difficult to pinpoint too. Tiny cracks around windows or little gaps around door frames may be hard to find with the naked eye but add up to create a large weakness in your home’s performance.

But most draft problems don’t come from holes and gaps around your home’s windows and doors. In fact, drafts are more related to how well a house is sealed and insulated. Outdoor winds can also make a difference on how drafty your house is. When strong winds blow against your house, they create a pressure difference between the air inside and outside of the home. This pressure difference creates a suction effect that can draw conditioned air through the gaps in your walls and then outside of your house.

Bradley Mechanical offers a comprehensive list of home performance testing that can evaluate your HVAC equipment, visually inspect your insulation, and measure how airtight your home is. It can also help determine what kind of airflow problems your home has and where they are located.

Infiltrometer™ “Blower Door” Test

For a home to have healthy indoor air there needs to be a certain amount of ventilation and air leakage. Air needs to be able to circulate throughout the home evenly. The problem with a drafty house is that there is too much air leakage occurring resulting in energy bills and rooms that are hard to regulate the temperatures in. The infiltrometer™ is a device created by the Department of Energy to measure how airtight your home is. This test was developed after scientists discovered that newer homes that are well insulated can still have high insulated energy. Using this test, technicians can find and fix the largest holes causing your home to be drafty.

Air Leakage Evaluation

To find installation problems inside your home’s duct work that could be affecting the airflow in your home, a static pressure test needs to be done. What is static pressure? It involves the measurement of three things within your duct system: the outward force of air, the pressure of air against the walls, and the resistance air encounters through a duct system.

If your home is too drafty or is having airflow issues that are costing you money and comfort, then give Bradley Mechanical a call today at (804) 748-6728. Our HVAC technicians can perform complete and comprehensive testing to determine where your problem areas are and recommend ways to improve your home performance. We can help you increase the comfort of your home while reducing the amount of your energy costs by up to 50%. We are Central Virginia’s HVAC experts and we have been helping families with drafty, energy wasting homes for over 50 years.