Properly air sealing and insulating your home will not only help reduce your heating and cooling costs, but also make your home more comfortable.

One of the most important jobs of a building enclosure is stopping air. Next to rain, air leaks through walls, roofs, and floors can have the most damaging effect on the durability of a home. Uncontrolled airflow through the shell not only carries moisture into framing cavities, causing mold and rot, but it can also account for a huge portion of a home's energy use and can cause indoor-air-quality issues.

A tight house is better than a leaky house, with a caveat - a tight house without a ventilation system is just as bad as a leaky house with no ventilation system. Energy efficiency requires a tight shell and good indoor-air quality requires fresh outdoor air. Ideally, the fresh air should come from a known source at a known rate not from random accidental leaks of unknown size and quantity. For this to happen, the house needs an adequate air barrier and a controlled ventilation path.

Where do the leaks come from?
The US Department of Energy lists how much air leakage can occur in an average American home from various locations: Ceiling, walls and floors - 31%; ducts - 15%; fireplace - 14%; plumbing penetrations - 13%; doors - 11%; windows - 10%; fans and vents - 4%; and electrical outlets - 2%.

How much can you typically save?
Sealing and insulating the "envelope" or "shell" of your home-its outer walls, ceiling, windows, doors, and floors-is often the most cost effective way to improve energy efficiency and comfort.

The amount of energy and money you will save depends on the amount of air leakage you have. If your home is newer and well-built, your savings could be around 5-20%. For older homes, the savings can be more than a 50% reduction of heating and cooling costs. The average energy savings we are able to achieve is around 30%. No matter the age of your home it's important to get an energy audit to determine the extent of your air leakage. (Source: www.energystar.gov)

BENEFITS

• Lower utility bills
• Improved comfort, especially during summer and winter
• Reduced noise from outside
• Less pollen, dust, and insects entering your home
• Better humidity control

Efficiency Matters uses the latest technology and greenest materials to seal your home. We offer all kinds of insulation services from blown in loose fill to rigid foam. Call us today for a free consultation.

Examples:

Attic insulation - We use cellulose insulation for 98% of all of our jobs. We strongly believe that cellulose insulation is better for you than fiberglass (and others) in many ways including indoor air quality, R-value per inch, sound proofing and overall air barrier properties. The cellulose insulation we use is manufactured locally out of Penrose, Colorado and is made up of 85% recycled materials. The R-value is 3.6 per inch when applied as loose fill in your attic.

Vacuum and air seal attic - We use a 15hp vacuum to temporarily or permanently remove the insulation in your attic so that we can approach the attic as if it were brand new. Taking out the insulation allows us to see all of the penetrations throughout your attic. We consider this approach best practice and you'll gain the most in energy savings and comfort from this method. We use 2-part Handi Foam to seal all penetrations and top plates including the top plates at the exterior wall.

Vacuming	Cleared attic
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Dense pack exterior walls - We can dense packing your exterior walls with cellulose insulation by using a method called drill and fill. We will place wood plugs when done.

Filling	Sealing
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Insulating & Spray foam attic walls - Installing a spray foam to your attic walls will increase the R-value and add an air barrier. Air infiltrating your home can be one of the main causes of uncomfortable drafts and high energy bills for many homeowners.

Attic wall before	Attic wall after
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Insulating crawl space - Insulating and airsealing your crawl space rim and joist and foundation walls with 2-part spray foam.

Crawl space joist	Rim Joist 2	Crawl space walls	Crawl space walls
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Seal around furnace flue - Here we installed a metal collar around a furnace flue which will keep insulation 2" away from the fire source. We also sealed around the flue connection with fire rated caulk and/or spray foam.

Before	After
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