Energy Savings Retrofit Details: Sealing Attic, Basement, & Floor Air & Heat Leaks
- Guide to sealing air and heat leaks in buildings
- Sealing heat and air leaks at chimneys, floors, plumbing and electrical penetrations lead to significant reduction in building heating cost
- Finding & sealing air leaks to gain major energy savings in an older building
- Solar Age Magazine Articles on Renewable Energy, Energy Savings, Construction Practices
- Questions & Answers about the most effective methods for sealing building air leaks to cut heating or cooling costs
- References
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This article describes a real world approach to finding and sealing elusive air leaks in older buildings in order to gain the most heating or cooling energy savings. Sketch at page top and accompanying text are reprinted/adapted/excerpted with permission from Solar Age Magazine - editor Steven Bliss.
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Energy Saving Building Retrofit Details: Theory vs. Reality
The text below paraphrases, quotes-from, updates, and comments an original article from Solar Age Magazine and written by Steven Bliss - with permission. Links to the original article follow this text. In original form this material was a sidebar to Down East Retrofit.
Heating cost energy saving retrofit realities rarely match textbook diagrams. Pipes and wires get in your way, spaces are inaccessible, and the building details you discover often boggle the mind. And because textbook buildings rarely match real ones, real energy savings often fall short of predictions.
Researches have found that airflows around, behind, and through insulation account for many of the missing BTUs. To combat these heating and air leaks, sophisticated energy savings retrofitters often concentrate on basement and attic work - trying to block the main heat loss and air leak pathways up through the building.
Once the exterior walls have been insulated and sealed, as in the Turner retrofit (discussed in this article), infiltration and heat loss through leaks and convective loops in the interior wall partitions rival losses through the building exterior walls. (See HEAT LOSS DETECTION TOOLS for details.)
Attic leaks (called "bypasses" or "thermal bypasses" - see THERMAL TRACKING & HEAT LOSS) rob the building of heat in two ways:
Stack effects increase building air infiltration and blow heat out of the structure
First they increase the overall rate of air infiltration driven by the stack effect.
The taller the building height between low and high leaks, the stronger will be the stack pressure. In a tall New York City building where top floor tenants kept the windows open in winter - they were too hot - the stack effect was a virtual gale of out-blowing hot air. Notice that tissue we taped to the under-side of the window sash? Any desktop papers near an open window would simply blow outside! -- DJF.
These same stack effects and thus building heat losses occur in one and two story residential homes as well.
Not only do stack effects draw heat out of a building, any indoor air contaminants such as airborne crawl space mold are drawn upwards through the rest of the building.
Readers should also see AIR LEAK SEALING PROCEDURE for a step by step guide to sealing air leaks at windows and doors, working from inside, and see HEAT LOSS DETECTION TOOLS and INSULATION INSPECTION & IMPROVEMENT for energy saving retrofit detailed guides. To reduce heating costs by attention to heating equipment itself, see HEATING COST SAVINGS METHODS. Contact us to suggest text changes and additions and, if you wish, to receive online listing and credit for that contribution. |
Illustrated in the sketch at left, air and heat loss leaks in old building floors can be tricky to seal - particularly with board-type subflooring. If the building is built over a vented crawlspace or an unheated basement, the floor should be sealed as well as possible from the prime living space. This limits air infiltration and keeps moisture (and possibly airborne mold or radon gas if present) out of the living space. If the basement is finished and heated, it is usually sealed at its walls, not at the floor above.
Stack effects and convective loops chill the building's interior walls
Second, as we detail at Convective Loops & Thermal Bypass Leaks, stack effects in buildings chill the interior walls - increasing conduction (heat) losses through them. Sealing in the home's interior will reduce infiltration, but it won't stop partitions and plumbing or electrical chases that are open to the attic from filling with cold air. Only sealing in the attic will help.
In addition to increasing fuel bills, drafts and cold walls make it hard for the building occupants to feel comfortable no matter how many BTU's the heating system is churning out.
Basement thermal bypasses increase the stack effect in buildings
Basement air leaks and thermal bypasses increase the stack effect and carry moist air (or mold, gases, or other airborne contaminants) into the building occupied spaces above where they cause problems.
The collection of sketches (above left) show typical attic and floor air leaks and thermal bypasses and how to seal them.
While the principles apply to all buildings, each structure will demand creative solutions.
Energy Savings Retrofit Case Study - Down East Retrofit
Superinsulating a sprawling fuel-gobbling building was not enough: finding and sealing elusive air leaks was a vital second step in gaining major energy savings.
See ENERGY SAVINGS RETROFIT CASE STUDY for an updated online version of the original articles (below)
Here we include solar energy, solar heating, solar hot water, and related building energy efficiency improvement articles reprinted/adapted/excerpted with permission from Solar Age Magazine - editor Steven Bliss.
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Technical Reviewers & References
Related Topics, found near the top of this page suggest articles closely related to this one.
- Solar Age Magazine was the official publication of the American Solar Energy Society. The contemporary solar energy magazine associated with the Society is Solar Today. "Established in 1954, the nonprofit American Solar Energy Society (ASES) is the nation's leading association of solar professionals & advocates. Our mission is to inspire an era of energy innovation and speed the transition to a sustainable energy economy. We advance education, research and policy. Leading for more than 50 years.
ASES leads national efforts to increase the use of solar energy, energy efficiency and other sustainable technologies in the U.S. We publish the award-winning SOLAR TODAY magazine, organize and present the ASES National Solar Conference and lead the ASES National Solar Tour – the largest grassroots solar event in the world."
- Steve Bliss's Building Advisor at buildingadvisor.com helps homeowners & contractors plan & complete successful building & remodeling projects: buying land, site work, building design, cost estimating, materials & components, & project management through complete construction. Email: info@buildingadvisor.com
Steven Bliss served as editorial director and co-publisher of The Journal of Light Construction for 16 years and previously as building technology editor for Progressive Builder and Solar Age magazines. He worked in the building trades as a carpenter and design/build contractor for more than ten years and holds a masters degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Excerpts from his recent book, Best Practices Guide to Residential Construction, Wiley (November 18, 2005) ISBN-10: 0471648361, ISBN-13: 978-0471648369, appear throughout this website, with permission and courtesy of Wiley & Sons. Best Practices Guide is available from the publisher, J. Wiley & Sons, and also at Amazon.com
Books & Articles on Building & Environmental Inspection, Testing, Diagnosis, & Repair
 The Home Reference Book - the Encyclopedia of Homes, Carson Dunlop & Associates, Toronto, Ontario, 25th Ed., 2012, is a bound volume of more than 450 illustrated pages that assist home inspectors and home owners in the inspection and detection of problems on buildings. The text is intended as a reference guide to help building owners operate and maintain their home effectively. Field inspection worksheets are included at the back of the volume. Special Offer: For a 10% discount on any number of copies of the Home Reference Book purchased as a single order. Enter INSPECTAHRB in the order payment page "Promo/Redemption" space. InspectAPedia.com editor Daniel Friedman is a contributing author.
Or choose the The Home Reference eBook for PCs, Macs, Kindle, iPad, iPhone, or Android Smart Phones. Special Offer: For a 5% discount on any number of copies of the Home Reference eBook purchased as a single order. Enter INSPECTAEHRB in the order payment page "Promo/Redemption" space.
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