Is Heat Loss a Problem in Your Home?


Because sunny Orlando can still get chilly on winter nights, improvements that keep your home comfortable during the cold season have a measurable payoff. Minimizing your home’s heat loss is one of the simplest steps you can take toward greater comfort and lower heating bills.

Where Heat Escapes

The longer the warm air from your furnace or heat pump stays in your house, the less work your system has to do and the less energy you use. Poorly weatherized homes lose heat rapidly due to air leaks and lack of insulation. If you notice cold drafts blowing from your doors and windows or you find your walls too cold to sit near during winter, your home is almost certainly losing too much heat.

Air leaks are caused by cracks and gaps often found around:

• Doors and windows
• Pipes and wiring entries
• Vents and fans on exterior walls
• Electrical outlets and light switches
• Baseboards and crown molding

Heat can also radiate out of your home through the roof, walls and floor if these areas don’t contain sufficient insulation.

Keep More Warmth Inside

You can find larger air leaks by holding a smoke pen or lit incense stick up to a suspected leak. Leaking air will blow the smoke sideways. To find smaller leaks, contact a professional for a home energy audit. A technician will bring in equipment, such as a blower door, to assess your home’s air leakage so it can be reduced.

Apply weatherstripping to seal air leaks around the moving joints of doors and windows. Use caulk to stop leaks around non-moving surfaces, such as utility line entries and baseboards.

Because heat rises, the insulation in your attic is one of your best defenses against winter heat loss. Your attic should have at least an R-30 layer of insulation, which is around 11 inches of fiberglass batts. A home energy audit can tell you whether or not you’ll benefit from added wall or floor insulation.

For more guidance on minimizing your home’s heat loss, contact us at Rinaldi’s Energy Solutions in the Orlando area.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Orlando, Florida and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).

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