How to Combat a Drafty House This Winter

Older homes are notorious for being drafty, but guess what? Lots of newer homes are drafty too. So whether you have a new or an old home, what's a beleaguered homeowner to do? You're tired of trying to heat your home in winter, knowing the warm air just rises up to the ceiling and seems to be lost in space while your home's occupants shiver at ground level. 

There are some solutions for a drafty house, but be advised, it's not necessarily an easy or cheap fix. Nevertheless, let's take a look at what you might be able to do. 

Why Do I Have a Drafty House?

Quite often, a house is drafty because of minute cracks around window and door frames, at baseboards, around an attic hatch, and because of holes in exterior walls for pipes, wires, and cables. These holes contribute to draftiness but aren't the main culprit. 

As warm air rises, it creates a vacuum and pulls in cold air from the outdoors through the cracks we just mentioned. The warm air is forced upward, where it might heat up a second story, making it stuffy and uncomfortable, and then travel farther into the attic, where it is lost to your efforts to heat your home. 

While air-sealing those cracks with insulation, caulk, and weatherstripping will help diminish the draftiness of your home, it's not the only remedy.

You also need to insulate the attic to stop those warm-air losses. Furthermore, you may also need to add insulation around the foundation of your home. 

Insulating the Attic and Foundation to Prevent a Drafty House

You should bring the R-value of the insulation in your attic up to about 49 — the R-value being a measure of how effective your insulation is at stopping heat transfer. R-49 translates to as much as 15 inches of insulation on the floor of your attic.

You may also need to hire a professional to air-seal and insulate with two-part foam or foam board and apply sealant to the wooden panel where your foundation meets the rest of the house.

For more on fixing your drafty house, contact Air Assurance of Broken Arrow. 

School's Out: Changing Your HVAC Schedule

You always want your children to be comfortable. Since kids will be spending more time at home in the summer, you'll need to take the necessary steps to keep your home cool enough for your little ones. Here are some useful tips on how to adjust your home's HVAC schedule accordingly.

When at Home

When your kids are at home, it's best to set your thermostat to 78 degrees. This will not only keep them comfortable but also save you money. You can make your home's cooling system more effective by taking the following steps.

• Invest in a dehumidifier.

• Replace worn weatherstripping and caulk around your windows and doors to keep your house sealed.

• Install window treatments to block out the sun's rays.

• Set ceiling fans to spin counterclockwise.

When Nobody's Home

Whether you're taking your children to soccer, for a walk in the park, or going on a bike ride, you should alter your home's temperature settings when everyone's away. Turn your thermostat up to 85 to 88 degrees to keep your home warmer than usual.If you have a standard thermostat, you'll have to manually adjust the temperature each time you and your kids are leaving the house. With a programmable thermostat, you can program a different cooling schedule for a specific time of the day or each day of the week, depending on your family's schedule. You simply set it and forget it. Be sure to follow these programming timing tips when using a programmable thermostat:

• Reset the thermostat to 78 degrees 30 minutes before returning home.

• Reduce cooling an hour before going to bed each night.

• Increase the cooling about 30 minutes before your wake up time.

Adopting the HVAC schedule above will keep your entire family comfortable and your cooling bills lower. For more home comfort and energy efficiency tips, contact the experts at Air Assurance. For more than 30 years, we've helped homeowners in the Broken Arrow area with their HVAC needs and won numerous awards for our exceptional services.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273.

5 Simple Ways to Cut Your Energy Bills This Winter

With cold weather approaching, now's the time to complete some home projects to cut your energy bills this winter. These easy-to-complete projects are inexpensive in the short run and can each be completed within 30 minutes.

Weatherstripping

A properly fitted door or window is lined with flexible weatherstripping to keep drafts out and heat in. Over time, these strips break down from use, so locating these weak spots should be your first priority. When you locate a length of weatherstripping that needs replacing, simply pull it away from the sill and tack up a fresh piece.

Outlet Protection

Electrical outlets on a home's exterior are often the most overlooked source of heat loss in the home. You can cut your energy bills this winter by removing outlet plates and inserting inexpensive outlet gaskets designed to add insulation in areas often lacking in protection.

Plug Exterior Holes

Exterior water faucets and meter lines poking through your home's exterior are often left exposed to the cold, as well as pests using your entryway to get in. With an expanding foam product, you can fill these gaps and reduce not only heat loss, but the encroachment of pests.

Plastic Film

It's estimated that up to 25 percent of a home's heating loss occurs through windows, so by adding another layer of easy-to-install plastic film, you can retain heat and lower your bills. Kits are readily available at your local hardware store.

Programmable Thermostat

Even an inexpensive programmable thermostat can help reduce your home heating costs by 10 percent, allowing you to establish heat levels during the day and night. You have the ability to lower the heat when you're away and raise it to comfort level when you're home.For more expert techniques to cut your energy bills this winter, please contact Air Assurance. We're been serving the Greater Tulsa community since 1985 and are here to help.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). Credit/Copyright Attribution: “Merydolla/Shutterstock”

Tips on Stopping Air Leaks in Your Home

Your Broken Arrow home may be plagued with air leaks, which can lead to a wide array of unpleasant problems. Poor indoor air quality, reduced home comfort, and increase in energy bills are just a few of the troubles that air leaks can cause. Fortunately, the following tips on stopping air leaks can increase your home’s energy efficiency, improve your indoor air and save you money on your heating and cooling costs.

Locating Air Leaks

Before you can stop the air leaks, you must first find them. Homes typically have leaks near windows, doors, floors, ductwork, baseboards, fireplaces, walls, outlets, rim and floor joints, ceilings, switch plates and the home’s foundation. Air leaks can also occur near pipes and vents that exit through basements and attics.

Stopping Air Leaks

Depending on where the air leak is located, it may only require a simple fix. For example, leaks around doors and windows can usually be fixed by installing inexpensive weather stripping available at hardware stores and home improvement centers. Expanding foam can fill in small holes and cracks in your foundation.

Homes with forced air heating and cooling often experience leaks due to damaged ductwork. If the problem area is located at an easy-to-reach location, you may be able to fix the problem with duct sealant. For areas that you cannot get to, such as behind walls and under floors, you will need the help of a professional to repair the damaged.

Energy Audit

Obtaining a whole-house energy audit from a respectable HVAC company is the first step in ensuring your home is running at maximum energy efficiency. During the audit, a highly trained technician will use the latest equipment to test your home’s efficient level. These tests will determine exactly where you are wasting energy and provide you with the information to go about stopping air leaks.

For more information about stopping air leaks, contact the experts at Air Assurance. We are a family-owned business providing heating, cooling, plumbing and air quality services to the Broken Arrow area since 1985.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). 

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Fall Furnace Inspection: Highly Recommended for Your Tulsa Home

Broken Arrow will soon see winter weather arriving in force, and if you haven't already scheduled your fall furnace inspection, now is a good time to do it. Your furnace works 24/7 throughout the winter to keep you comfortable, and over time it loses efficiency. Maintaining your furnace will lower your energy bills, increase system safety and efficiency, extend its life and help prevent common problems this winter. 

A comprehensive tune-up by a reputable company should include these key tasks:

• Lubricate the system to prevent damaging friction.

• Clean and inspect the blower assembly, heat exchanger and other essential components.

• Measure the voltage and current on the motor to ensure they meet system specifications.

• Test the burner combustion and gas pressure for safety and efficiency.

• Check for dangerous carbon monoxide leaks.

• Measure the flue gases to ensure they comply with system standards.

• Inspect the ventilation system for proper venting of combustion gases.

• Inspect your ductwork for obstructions and loose joints that can restrict airflow.

• Check your thermostat for accuracy and calibrate it if necessary.

• Inspect the wiring and terminals for corrosion, and apply a nonconductive coating.

Maintaining the efficiency of your system is essential for season-long comfort and savings. These tips will help you lessen the load on your furnace to keep it operating efficiently all winter long:

• Check your furnace's air filter every month. When it's caked with dust, replace it with a good-quality, pleated filter. A dirty filter restricts the air flow to your system and can cause overheating and expensive related damage.

• Reverse the direction of your ceiling fan blades to push warm air down and throughout your rooms, keeping you comfortable at lower thermostat settings.

• Seal around doors and windows with caulk and weatherstripping to keep warm air in and cold air out. The typical home loses up to 20 percent of conditioned air through leaky doors and windows.

If you would like to schedule your furnace inspection with one of our qualified technicians in the Broken Arrow area, please feel free to contact us at Air Assurance Heating, Air Conditioning & Plumbing.

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Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). 

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Improperly Sealed Garage May Leak Carbon Monoxide Into Your Tulsa-Area Home

When you have an attached garage, there's always a risk of carbon monoxide (CO) entering your home through the door that connects your home to the garage. Another less visible source of CO coming into your home lies at the wall that connects the garage and the house or an attic hatch in your garage. A study conducted by the Canadian government found that homes with attached garages had traces of benzene inside them, a byproduct of gasoline. Parking your car or other fuel-burning appliances like a lawn mower or snow blower can bring CO into your home. Besides the hazards of CO and byproducts from gas or diesel, storing yard chemicals or paints and solvents can also degrade your indoor air quality.In order to avoid having hazardous chemicals from the garage in your indoor air, employ these strategies to cut the risk:

• Check the weatherstripping on the adjoining door and replace it if it's worn. Removing the residue from the old weatherstripping will give you a tighter seal when you apply the fresh product.

• Inspect the sill and joist plates in the garage. Fill any cracks or crevices with caulk. If you have pipes, wires or cables that enter your home from the garage, look closely to be sure that there are no gaps that could bring in carbon monoxide. Anytime your HVAC system turns on, it could pull air through those points. Seal them with caulk or expanding foam if they're larger.

• Look at the seal between the attic hatch and the ceiling in your garage. If your home has a forced air HVAC system and you have leaks in the ductwork, it's possible for the ducts to pull CO out of the garage and into your home. If your attic hatch isn't sealed, apply weatherstripping to tighten the connection or install an attic tent.

If you would like more information about the hazards of CO and an attached garage, or would like your ductwork tested for leaks, contact Air Assurance Heating, Air Conditioning & Geothermal. We've provided HVAC services for the Broken Arrow region since 1985.Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). Image courtesy of Shutterstock

Caulking And Weatherstripping Your Home Secures Savings

Caulking And Weatherstripping Your Home Secures Savings

Caulking and weatherstripping your home are easy, inexpensive ways to reduce energy use and lower your utility bills.Money is lost as conditioned air leaks around windows and doors, wasting energy and increasing utility costs. By caulking and weatherstripping those areas, conditioned air remains in your house where it belongs, and cost and energy use is reduced.If you plan to seal your house with caulking and weatherstripping, first access your home's ventilation needs. Some homes have poor indoor air quality, such as mold, dust or other contaminants. These pollutants can become locked in the house if it’s sealed without proper ventilation. A heating and air conditioning professional can assess the ventilation needs of your home, if you're unsure and would like professional advice.

• Weatherstripping: Measure how much weatherstripping you’ll need before cutting by measuring the perimeter of areas to be weatherstripped, and then add five to ten percent. Make sure the area is clean and dry prior to applying. Install around the frame of doors. Under the door apply either reinforced foam weatherstripping, or a door sweep or threshold. For windows, apply along the top and bottom of sash. The weatherstripping should be snug and the window or door should compress when closed.

• Caulking: Caulking is a versatile compound for sealing a variety of air leaks. It also prevents water damage when applied around water pipes, bathtubs, sinks, faucets and more.

Before you begin caulking, make sure the surface is clean and dry and you’ve removed old caulking and paint.Use caulking to seal around windows and doors, baseboards and quarter round moldings. Find areas of air leakage and seal as needed, for instance: around phone or TV wires or cables where air enters the house, entrances for electricity and gas, electrical outlets and switches, are just a few.Money is wasted if your house leaks air, but caulking and weatherstripping provide a simple, money- saving technique to make your house more efficient and reduce costs.For more expert advice about caulking and weatherstripping,  and other issues related to home comfort, please feel free to contact Air Assurance. We’ve been proudly serving the Broken Arrow/Tulsa area since 1985.Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). Image courtesy of Shutterstock

Attic-Sealing Strategies Give Tulsa Area Residents A Solid Plan For Efficiency

Energy costs on the rise? Perhaps these attic sealing strategies can help put you on the road to energy efficiency.Roof LeaksA leaky roof can lead to a variety of problems, including:

• Water damage.

• Wood rot.

• Mold growth.

• Soaked, ineffective insulation.

With this in mind, perhaps the first step in your attic sealing strategy should be to seal off roof leaks with the appropriate flashing material.Air LeaksAir and moisture can also enter the attic from inside of the home, presenting some of the same moisture issues as roof leaks, while wasting your conditioned air and increasing your annual energy costs. In some homes, this is further complicated by exhaust fans, such as those found in kitchens and bathrooms, being vented directly into the attic. These fans should always exhaust moisture and air directly outside. Of course, most common air leaks occur around wiring, plumbing and ductwork, and are easily addressed using some form of weatherstripping or caulk.VentilationOne of the most important aspects of proper attic sealing is ventilation. While that statement may seem contrary, a well-ventilated attic ensures that moisture and contaminants that do enter the attic have a means of escaping your home. If your attic isn’t properly ventilated, consider adding continuous ventilation.InsulationWith your attic tightly sealed and proper ventilation in place, you can now finish off your attic sealing strategy by boosting your insulation. If you already have three to four inches of existing insulation, consider adding insulation with an R-value of 25-38. If you have no attic insulation at all, you may need R30-R60. For a more accurate assessment, consult a professional.A properly sealed attic will reduce moisture issues, improve household comfort and significantly increase your annual energy savings. For more information on improving the energy efficiency of your household, speak to one of our trained technicians. We're always standing by to serve your heating and cooling needs. For an expert consultation, contact Air Assurancetoday.Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). Air Assurance services Tulsa, Broken Arrow and the surrounding areas. Visit our website to see our current promotions and get started today!     

How To Save On Heating Costs This Year

As we all know, our winters can be damp and miserable.  But, here in Broken Arrow, you can save money on heating while still keeping your home warm and comfortable. You can reduce your heating bill without compromising your family's comfort by taking a few simple steps to use your heating system more efficiently. You can do many things that will cost you little or no money, then you can consider some larger investments that will give you a great return on your money.1. The first thing you can do to save money on heating is to manage your thermostat wisely. If you and your family are out working during the day, set your thermostat down five to eight degrees below where you prefer to keep it when people are home. You can turn up the heat as soon as you get home and your house will heat right back up in short order, but you will have cut your heating bill significantly by letting it cool down during the day.You can cut your heating bill even more by turning your thermostat down at night when everyone is sleeping. Put extra blankets on your beds and you will never notice the difference. Many people prefer sleeping in a slightly cooler room.2. Another good way to save money on heating is to not let the warm air escape from your house. Be sure the weatherstripping is in good shape around all of your windows and doors. Use caulking around window and door trim.  Check for gaps where ducts and piping go from heated areas to unheated spaces and plug them with insulation. If you don't use your fireplace every day, be sure the damper is closed and seals tightly to keep cold air from falling down your chimney.3. Inspect your home's insulation levels.  By simply looking in your attic, if you can see the rafters, you are in need of more insulation, and could be losing as much as 30% of the heat you're paying for.  The Department of Energy recommends at least R-30 to R39 (or up to 19") for the state of Oklahoma.4.  While you're in the attic, inspect your ductwork for damaged areas.  Look for cracks or leaks around where the ductwork connects to your furnace.  There's no sense in heating your attic right?Once you have done all of the free and inexpensive things you can to save money on heating, consider investing in a more efficient furnace or installing a solar or even a geothermal heating system.Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information, click here. Air Assurance services the Tulsa, Broken Arrow and the surrounding areas.  To get started, check out our website or see our current promotions.