Keeping your home as energy efficient as possible can reduce your spending on heating and cooling, and can help you contribute in a small way to the effort to reduce and reverse climate change. How do you know if your home needs more insulation than it currently has? Here are three ways to evaluate the effectiveness of your home’s current insulation.
Hire a Professional Energy Auditor
Although you can perform a basic energy audit on your own, hiring a professional to do a comprehensive audit will give you much more information. An auditor will help you determine whether your home is under-insulated by taking thermal pictures of your exterior walls to identify areas that might need to have spray foam insulation Maryland added to them. In addition, they will inspect attics, basements, and crawl spaces to determine insulation needs. Many auditors will also perform blower door tests to help determine where leaky areas are in the exterior of your home
Feel for Drafts
Even without a blower door test, you can walk around the interior of your home to find drafts. If you have areas of your home that are drafty, you’re undoing some of the heating and cooling you do to keep your home livable. Adding insulation in these areas can improve energy efficiency and make your home feel more comfortable for your family, no matter the outside temperature. Drafty areas may occur around windows or doors. Also be sure to feel around electrical outlets and light switch plates that are on exterior walls, as these openings can let in drafts as well.
Look for Vermin
No one wants bugs and rodents in their homes. If you are finding more mice or other vermin in your home than seems reasonable, consider insulating around windows and doors to block the small holes that these critters use to get in. You might also find small points of entry around the foundation of your home, or near basement windows. Spray foam insulation can help seal these holes as well. Of course, minimizing unwanted visitors isn’t the only benefit. Blocking these points of entry will also reduce air leakage around your home, making your living spaces more comfortable.
Looking at insulation needs around your home can help improve your home’s energy efficiency. This can result in both money savings for you and better conditions for the environment overall. An energy audit is a great first step in determining your insulation needs.
