We talk a lot about making sure your Air Conditioning unit is up and running. But what if there is something else causing your cooling deficiencies? Today we’re going just about anything that may be creating a draft that is growing your electric bill and how to stop it! By the time you’ve finished reading this blog, we hope that you’ll have the tools needed to find out what exactly is causing your air leaks.
There are two really interesting pieces of advice this energy.gov article details for you to find out where the air is escaping.
Hands-on Approach
Sorry about the awful pun, but here is how you can use your hands to find air leaks.
Wait for a cool, windy day. Turn off all combustion appliances such as your furnace and water heaters. Shut all the windows in your home. Also shut all doors and fireplace flues. Turn off all exhaust fans such as your dryer and bathroom fan. Do a double check. Are you missing anything? Good to go? Okay – let’s start.
Wet your hand and wave it around (preferably like you just don’t care). If there is an cool feeling on any part of your hand as you traverse inside your home, that is where the draft is. Focus on areas that you suspect are causing air leaks such as near windows and doors. Simple and free of charge!
Let’s look at another method for finding some of those sneaky air leaks.
Common (in)sense
You can also, provided you follow the directions above of turning off combustion appliances and waiting for a windy day, use incense to find where your home’s air is escaping! Light the incense stick and carefully wave it around where there are typically leaks. That includes windows, door, and more!
Follow the smoke – look where the smoke escapes and then, boom, that’s where your leak is! If smoke escapes just about everywhere, you need to really think about how that is treating your electric bill.
What to do
Well, you found a leak using one of the above methods. Now what? You should probably have some new doors or windows (whatever is causing the draft) installed so that your outdated ones stop costing you money. Additionally, upgrading these parts of your home will be better for the environment.
Plastic sheet alternative
New windows and doors that will be more energy efficient might just be too costly for you. That’s understandable. An alternative that isn’t as an aesthetically-appealing option is to have plastic sheeting placed over the windows. Here is a DIY guide from ehow on plastic sheeting to stop drafts.
Sound Off
Are your windows up to par but it just doesn’t feel like the temperature that your air conditioner is telling you is a reality? You might simply have a busted AC unit that needs repair.
You can get in touch with us, the Austin AC pros, at 512.219.1822.
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