Let Cobwebs Be Your Friend

Nobody likes cobwebs but let yours be your friend at least until you can get rid of them. 

Have you ever wondered why your home has cobwebs all over while your friend’s homes are cobweb free?  The answer is that you have a very nice home for spiders.  Spiders typically spin cobwebs in areas where there is moderate air movement as the bugs that they are trying to catch like to fly on this slight current of air.  Eliminate the air and you will eliminate the cobwebs.

You may ask what this has to do with energy savings and the answer is that the same air that is providing a good home for the spiders is causing problems for you.  Studies have shown that a typical house loses around 30% of its heating and cooling energy through air leakage.  This air leakage takes conditioned air that you have paid to make comfortable and takes it out of your home.  In some cases the cause of these leaks is apparent as you can see to the outside, but in many homes it is the buildup of many tiny leaks that can account for the air leakage of your home.  While some leakage cannot be changed due to the construction of the home, I have seen a reduction of as much as 50% with minimal effort and cost. 

Air leakage not only lets conditioned air in and out of your home, but it can also create the feeling of drafty windows and can create dirty air for your family to breathe.  If you have a basement with insulation in the floor joists on the outside walls, take a piece down.  There is a good chance that the insulation will be black and dirty.  The reason for this is that the insulation is acting as a filter for the air moving through it.  This same dirt is being circulated in your home and being breathed in by your family.  By reducing your total air leakage you can have a significant impact on your homes comfort and energy efficiency and air quality.

You may wonder how you find all of these air leaks.  Home Energy Auditors have special fans to draw air out of the home which in turn brings outside air in at a higher than normal rate.  While this is being done the auditor is able to go around the home and find areas of concern and also assess how leaky the home is.  For homeowners looking to find the major spots you can look for the cobwebs and dirty insulation and also look for any big penetrations in the attic and basement as this is where air leakage is the most severe. 

This air leakage also in many cases accounts for the feeling of drafty windows where the windows do not actually have any leakage.  This drafty feeling is caused by the fact that the air has been given a chance to move and convection currents are moving the air passed the windows.  Homeowners will find that by taking these steps they will improve the comfort in their home.   Though homeowners can certainly do the work involved in remediating these problems it may be difficult to find all the leakage area without an energy audit.  The other thing that is possible with an audit is to determine the tightness of the home and whether there is actually a problem prior to undertaking this project.  If the home becomes too tight it can actually cause indoor air quality issues which we want to avoid.  I will discuss in full what an energy audit entails in future postings.