by Frederick Kessinger

Created on: December 23, 2008

Whether you live in a newly built modern home or an historic showcase mansion, heat loss can have a remarkable impact on your heating bills. Many people are not aware of the money they could be saving by taking a few simple preventive measures around their home to reduce the amount of heat that escapes to the exterior of the house. It should be noted first that you cannot eliminate 100% of the heat loss, it simply is not possible, but you can drastically reduce the effects.

For the most part, heat loss in a house happens in two distinct ways, one of which is not really heat loss' at all. The first form of heat loss is the transference of heat through solid objects. Heat always migrates toward the colder part of an object. In the case of houses in the heating season, this would be the exterior of the house. Every type of material has a particular resistance to heat transfer, which is expressed as an R-Value'. The higher this resistance is, the longer it will take for heat to transfer through it when there is a difference in temperature. This applies to drywall, wood studs, brick and mortar, and even window glass and frames.

The second form of heat loss' is not actually a loss of the heat, but dilution of the heated air with unheated air. This comes in the form of infiltration of the exterior air into the house through cracks, doors, windows and even insulated exterior walls. A common misconception is that batt insulation will keep cold air from coming through the exterior walls. Batt insulation reduces the transfer of heat, but does nothing to reduce airflow.

For an existing home, there are very few options for reducing the heat transfer effect through exterior walls and roofs. Insulation can be blown into exterior walls if they do not contain any insulation at all, but if they already have batt insulation the process used for adding blown-in insulation will not work. Insulation can be added in an attic fairly easily if the area is accessible. Adding insulation in an attic that has no insulation to begin with is an excellent start.

Probably one of the most effective steps you can take to reduce your heating bills is to minimize the infiltration of exterior air into your home. Start with your windows and doors. Leaky windows can account for up to 80% of your infiltration in older homes. On newer windows, check the weather stripping and seals to make sure they are in good repair. On casement windows be sure that the latch is locked and not just closed, and on sliding

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