We recently finished work at Bill Gambill's house. We had previously come out and performed a home performance evaluation and he asked us back to put in some more insulation and to do some air sealing. These are things that sound simple but make a big difference. We added about 12" of blown insulation across the whole attic. In conjunction with that we air sealed 16 recessed can lights.
Can lights that are not IC (insulation contact) rated and airtite need to be sealed because they are a major cause of air leakage. Non IC rated cans need to be boxed out around so that the new insulation doesn't come into contact with them and potentially cause a fire hazard. Airtite and other housings need to be sealed to the ceiling in order to make sure they stay air tight. We added airtite baffles on the inside to convert old fixtures to airtite ones.
We also replaced the worn out weatherstripping on all of the exterior doors and added new door sweeps to the doors to make sure that they would block out all the outside air from getting in and close securely. Around the windows we added new foam weatherstripping to the sash so that when it is closed it has a tight seal and no air is leaking in. We also properly vented four bathroom exhaust fans to the eave vents. This results in a reduction of the airflow and humidity in the attic.
Almost immediately the homeowners could tell a difference and that makes us happy. With winter here now I feel confident that they will be nice and comfortable in their home and even more comfortable when they see the reduction that it will make in their utility bill.
Can lights that are not IC (insulation contact) rated and airtite need to be sealed because they are a major cause of air leakage. Non IC rated cans need to be boxed out around so that the new insulation doesn't come into contact with them and potentially cause a fire hazard. Airtite and other housings need to be sealed to the ceiling in order to make sure they stay air tight. We added airtite baffles on the inside to convert old fixtures to airtite ones.
We also replaced the worn out weatherstripping on all of the exterior doors and added new door sweeps to the doors to make sure that they would block out all the outside air from getting in and close securely. Around the windows we added new foam weatherstripping to the sash so that when it is closed it has a tight seal and no air is leaking in. We also properly vented four bathroom exhaust fans to the eave vents. This results in a reduction of the airflow and humidity in the attic.Almost immediately the homeowners could tell a difference and that makes us happy. With winter here now I feel confident that they will be nice and comfortable in their home and even more comfortable when they see the reduction that it will make in their utility bill.
I'm the owner, Bill Gambill, and just want to say we have already begun to see a reduction in our utility bills. We've now had a couple of months of complete billing and I compared them to last year's. Our bill for January was down $115 and the one for February was down by $55. At this rate the work done by the good folks at Outside the Box will pay for itself in two years. That is my kind of "return on investment."
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