Air leaks around your home let in the chill of the cold Indianapolis winters and the heat and humidity in summer. Air pollution also finds its way in through leaks. Sealing these leaks will help you stay comfortable and save energy, but to seal them, you have to find them.
DIY Leak Detection
The simplest way to spot air leaks around your home is to notice where the cold drafts come from. If you feel drafts around a window or door, you have a major air leak there. To find smaller leaks, use a smoke pen or a lit stick of incense. Hold this up to an area where you suspect leaks and if the smoke moves sideways, it means there’s air leaking in .
Parts of the house to inspect for leaks include:
- Windows and doors
- Points where pipes and wires enter the house
- Bathroom and kitchen vent fans
- Appliance vents
- Baseboards and crown molding
- Electrical outlets and switch plates
Professional Leak Detection
A DIY inspection will help you find the bigger air leaks, which is a good start, but it still leaves a lot of tiny leaks undetected. A heating and cooling technician can perform tests to pinpoint the smallest leaks so you can seal them to maximize your home’s energy efficiency.
One of these is the blower door test, in which a large fan is fit in an exterior door to draw air out of the house. This lets the technician measure the building’s air infiltration rate. You might also want to have a Duct Blaster test performed to spot leaks in your HVAC duct system. These leaks waste your heated and cooled air, and can increase the risk of moisture problems in your attic.
The technician might also perform an infrared camera scan. A heat-sensitive infrared camera will produce images showing which parts of the house are losing or gaining heat. These images show you exactly where you should air seal or add insulation.
Once you know where your home is leaking air, you can use caulk and weatherstripping to seal the leaks.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Brownsburg, Indiana and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).
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