3 Ways To Cut Back On The Drafts In Your Home

If your home is not warm enough during the winter time, it is most likely because you have too many cold drafts throughout your home. Little pockets of cold air can really cool your house down, no matter how long your run your heater.

#1 Stop Drafts Around Electrical Boxes

You may be surprised at all the cold air that comes in around your electrical outlets. Lots of cold air is able to seep in around your electrical outlets because most electrical outlets are not properly insulated. Your electrical boxes should have been insulated when they were installed, although this step is often skipped.

You can fix this issue though. First, take off the cover plate. Then use some acrylic latex caulk to fill in the gaps that you see around your electrical box. If there are big gaps around your electrical box, use foam sealant that is designed to expand at a minimal rate. Foam sealant expands at different rates; don't get the foam sealant that has maximum expansion, as that may be a little too much.

Next, take a foam gasket and put it over the outlet. Then put the cover plate over the top of the foam gasket. The foam gasket will help keep drafty air from getting into your home. If you don't use one of the outlets, put a safety cover over the outlet to keep air from flowing in from the open outlet.

#2 Fill Exterior Holes

There is a good chance that your home has some holes that extend out to the exterior of your home. Cable lines, gas lines and water pipes are a few of the places where you may have holes that extend to the outside of your home. These holes are generally filled when they are made with some type of caulking; however, over time this caulking may shrink and fall off. The space around these exterior holes let in air.

Take some expanding foam and fill in around these holes. Fill the holes from both the outside and inside of your home. Put caulking around any pipes as well. Make sure that you can't feel any airflow around any exterior holes that are in your home.

#3 Check The Threshold

The space under your door, where the door meets with your floor is called the threshold. You don't want air to seep under the door. There should be a physical threshold that is screwed under the door. If the threshold is not tall enough, you can adjust the screws so that it is taller. If you don't have a threshold under your door, you are going to want to install one. 

Contact a company, like Elite Heating AC & Refrigeration, Inc, for more help.


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