Does Your Home Leak Like A Sieve?

Posted on by

So, your home is insulatedSieve with white plastic rim and handle, on wooden surface but is still cold in winter and hot in summer, especially when it’s windy?

It could be that your home is leaky.

A home that leaks like a sieve can be fine – in the right place (like the tropics, where air movement is welcome).

But if you live where winters are cold and summers are hot then you’ll probably want your home to provide you with comfortable shelter: not too cold and not too hot – and preferably without the huge hip-pocket and environmental costs of running heating or cooling all the time.

Insulation is a first step to modulating temperature extremes.

But if your home has holes in it, then heat will still move in and out – especially on windy days – and that’s why your home can still end up cold on cold days and hot on hot days.

Now we’ve just past the equinox is a good time to have a closer look at your home. The weather is milder so you will be more comfortable outside.

You may not have ever noticed that it’s got holes…but they’re there.

Look carefully for anywhere where you can see a gap – and then seal it. Remember to check both inside and outside.

Common culprits are:

  • door and window frames and where they meet the walls: Arrows showing gaps in external window architraves House - gap beside window frame - external - arrows House - gap under window frame2 - external - arrows
  •  eaves – especially where they meet the wallsGap between eave soffit and wall
  • other wall penetrations – look for where pipes and wires coming out of the wallExternal brick wall showing pipe hole

Sealing those gaps will bring you closer to a more comfortable and energy efficient home.

And sealed external gaps have an added bonus: your home will be less susceptible to bushfire embers and to heavy rain, both of which will continue to worsen with climate change.

So…now what’s top of your ‘home improvement list’?

✓  If you’d like to know just where you can make the biggest difference to your energy consumption, just contact me…or send me a voice message by clicking on the tab on the right.   I work with individuals, organisations and businesses to help transition to sustainability – especially moving from dependence on fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas) and increasing resiliency to climate change.

Till next time…be gentle to yourself and our world!