Insulating the Pipes and Walls of a Boiler Room

In this home, recently retrofitted by Dr. Energy Saver to become more energy efficient, a huge amount of heat and energy was being lost through the uninsulated foundation walls and the pipes in the boiler room. 

According to laws of physics temperatures move from more to less. In this home, the heat produced by the boiler unit was being dispersed into the boiler room through uninsulated pipes. That heat in the boiler room was then conductively transferred to the outside, through the concrete walls. That means that the boiler unit was consistently working harder to keep the home comfortable, since a significant portion of the heat being produced never made it into the conditioned living space. In other words, a portion of the air that this homeowner was paying to heat was being wasted in the boiler room. Dr. Energy Saver solved that problem by insulating the pipes in the boiler room and the foundation walls, to keep that heat from being lost to the outside. Foundation wall insulation is always a great idea in any home, but it is a must in basements and crawl spaces that house HVAC ducts and combustion appliances.

If you want to learn about more ways to get the best performance and savings out of your existing heating and cooling system, or for information about HVAC system upgrades, visit our website or contact Dr. Energy Saver to schedule a home energy evaluation.

How to Install an Airtight Hatch Cover

Welcome to episode 65 of the On the Job Series! In this segment, Tanner Janesky from Dr. Energy Saver makes his video debut by walking us through the 8 steps necessary to successfully install an airtight David Lewis attic hatch cover.

As discussed in previous On the Job videos, the average home in the U.S. wastes a lot of energy through the attic. As the heated air in the conditioned space rises, it seeks to escape through any gaps on the upper levels of the building — especially the unconditioned attic. This is why it is very important to air seal any gaps between the living space and the attic, and the attic hatch is usually a major source of air leakage.

There are three main criteria that define a properly installed hatch cover. First, it needs to stop air flow from the living space into the attic. Second, it is important to keep in mind that the attic will eventually need to be accessed by the homeowner, especially if it houses ducts and other appliances or if the space is used for storage. The hatch cover needs to be easy to remove and replace as well. Finally, it needs to look nice and neat, since the homeowner will be using it periodically.

The following are the eight steps necessary to successfully install a David Lewis hatch cover, as shown in the video:
1. Assemble the hatch cover
2. Air seal the hatch cover
3. Install weather stripping at the bottom of the hatch cover
4. Position it over the opening downstairs.
5. Check for gaps on the bottom of the hatch cover
6. Make the necessary adjustments to level the super deck so that there are no gaps between it and the hatch cover.
7. Install furring strip guides over the super deck, so that the cover can be easily lifted and returned to its proper place.
8. Air seal any additional gaps around the hatch cover and on the super deck, to prevent air flow from the conditioned area into the attic.

As an additional step, bungee cords can be installed on the hatch cover and attached to the super deck to help secure it in place, pressing the weather stripping against the surface of the super deck to create a tighter seal.

For more videos on how to make your attic and home more energy efficient, watch other On the Job Videos and subscribe to our YouTube Channel for the latest updates!

Making Floors Over the Garage Warmer

In this episode of the On The Job Video series, Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver, helps a homeowner solve a common problem in many homes: cold floors in rooms above the garage.

In most homes, the garage is an unconditioned, unheated space. For that reason, the rooms above it need to be properly insulated and air sealed. In other words, the rooms need to be completely isolated from the garage.

In this particular case, the floor above the garage was formerly insulated with fiberglass bats. Fiberglass bat is a poor choice for insulating this type of cavity because it only works when it is fluff, dry and evenly spread, filling the cavity completely. Yet, as it happened in this case and most of the time, installers leave huge gaps above, below and around the bats which allow the air to flow through.

According to laws of physics, heat tends to move from warm to cold. In this home, the rooms above the garage were constantly losing heat from all the gaps in the insulation blanket.

To solve this problem, the Dr. Energy Saver team dense-packed cellulose insulation between the garage ceiling and floor. We accessed the bays through holes drilled on the external walls and injected dense-packing cellulose in the cavities with especially powerful equipment.

Dense-packed cellulose has a much higher R-Value than fiberglass insulation and if properly applied, it also stops the air flow. This homeowner was able to feel the difference almost immediately. The two rooms above the garage weren’t just warmer and more comfortable—they were quieter too. The cellulose muffled the sounds of the busy street he lives in.

If you have uneven temperatures around the house with rooms that are hard to cool and heat, Dr. Energy Saver can help. Call us today for a free estimate!

Home Comfort at No Cost

Your house is supposed to protect your family from the weather and extreme temperatures. Yet, if your home is too hot during the summer and too cold during the winter, it is not doing its job.

Millions of families in the U.S. suffer through the seasons with uncomfortable homes and high utility bills, simply because they believe it is too expensive to fix, or they don’t know how.

In fact, you can fix your home, make it more comfortable, and lower your energy bills with work that pays for itself – and the answer can be summed up in two words: energy efficiency.

If your house is not an effective barrier against the outside temperatures, the money you spend in heating and cooling is being wasted, leaking out through openings in the building envelope, or being lost through poorly insulated attics, walls, and foundations.

Unfortunately many homeowners are led to believe that their home can be made energy efficient simply by replacing the windows, but that is not the way it works.

Homes are complex systems, and there are many pieces of the puzzle that need to be taken into consideration when it comes to achieving true energy efficiency.

That’s where Dr. Energy Saver comes in. We have helped thousands of homeowners across the U.S. fix their homes with a whole house approach to energy savings. On average, the work we perform usually pays for itself in only four to six years by significantly lowering fuel and electricity costs. Depending on where you live, you can enjoy a 15 to 25% annual rate of return on your investment. 

Dr. Energy Saver work starts with a thorough evaluation of your home, to understand how energy is being wasted in the first place. Most energy waste problems have three main causes: an inefficient heating and cooling system that consumes too much fuel and electricity to produce results, inefficient and leaky ductwork, and heat loss and gain through improperly insulated and leaky building envelope.

Heat commonly gets lost through floors, walls, ceilings, attics, chimneys, framing holes, can lights, fireplaces, cantilevers, and rooms over garages, just to name a few sources.

Dr. Energy Saver solves these problems by sealing the major leaks, creating a blanket of insulation around the living areas of your house, and upgrading your heating and cooling systems. Outside air stays out, inside air stays in. That is energy efficiency.

Once the cost of fixing your home is paid for in energy savings, you’ll still enjoy the same savings year after year!

Now think about this: unlike other home improvement projects, you are paying the equivalent cost of fixing the problem because you are overpaying for heating and cooling. So you might as well fix it.

Join the thousands of homeowners who are already enjoying more comfort and energy savings in their homes. Contact a Dr. Energy Saver dealer in your area today!

Spray Foam Insulation vs. Fiberglass

For many decades, the material of choice to insulate homes has been fiberglass. Blown fiberglass is used for the attic whereas fiberglass batts are used for wall cavities, ceilings, and pretty much everything else. Today, it is still a very popular insulation material, and is still used in new construction — it is inexpensive and most builders and insulation contractors are used to it.
Yet, there are several insulation materials available today that far outperform fiberglass insulation in many levels, and in the #61 episode of On the Job Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver, will show us how spray foam insulation outperforms fiberglass batts when it comes to wall cavity insulation in new construction.
Larry begins by reminding us that modern houses aren’t built as rectangles with gabled roofs anymore. Most new homes have architectural features such as cantilevers, multi level areas, enclosures and fixtures that create irregular wall cavities and many challenges in terms of insulation.
The house showcased in this video is one example of this type of modern construction.
Fiberglass has an R-Value of 3 per inch while spray foam has a R- Value of 7 per inch. R-Value is a measure of resistance to heat flow, and a lower R-Value per inch means that you need a thicker layer of fiberglass than you would of spray foam to insulate the same area and achieve the same ideal R-Value.
The problem is that the fiberglass R-Value is rated only when the material is fully fluffed, not when it is compressed and touching all the surfaces in the cavity, without edge gaps. A small 4% edge gap will cause a 30% decrease in the R-Value of fiberglass insulation.
Add to that the fact that fiberglass has no air sealing capabilities, and air flows right through the material and you will begin to understand how it can be easily outperformed by other insulation materials, especially spray foam insulation.
Larry walks us through the many architectural and framing features of the building that would create several opportunities for insulation failure if fiberglass were the chosen material — and he shows us just how easily closed spray foam can be applied to the exact same problem areas. Spray foam insulation expands and effectively fills even the smallest spaces and gaps, leaving no holes in the insulation blanket and air seals the walls as well!

At Dr. Energy Saver, we are always looking for ways to make homes more comfortable and reduce the cost of homeownership by improving energy performance. If you would like to make your home more comfortable, visit our website to locate a dealer in your area.

Watch our other On the Job Videos for more information on energy saving home improvements and subscribe to our YouTube Channel to get the latest updates!

The Stack Effect

If you’ve been watching videos or reading articles about home energy efficiency, you most likely heard or saw the term ‘stack effect’ used several times. Building scientists are always very concerned with the stack effect and how it impacts energy consumption and comfort.

The “stack effect” is a physics phenomenon that occurs in every single building, every house — including yours.
It causes the warm air inside any closed structure to rise and escape through the higher portions of the building. As a result, a negative pressure area is created at the lower levels of the building, causing a lot of unconditioned air from the outside to be sucked in through areas like crawl spaces and basements.
If you are running a heating or air conditioning system in your home, all the air that you are paying for is not staying in the living space. Instead, it is constantly leaking out from the top of your house. Unconditioned air is then being sucked in to make up for the air that is leaking out, and your HVAC system is working harder than ever to keep up with all the loss and intake.

While the concept is not hard to grasp, it is hard to imagine exactly how much it impacts your comfort and energy bills until you can actually see it in action.
And this is exactly what Larry Janesky will demonstrate in this episode of the On the Job video series. Using a diagnostic device called a digital micromanometer, Larry will demonstrate the enormous impact the stack effect has in terms of energy efficiency by measuring the differences in pressure between different areas of the house, and the outside.
After that demonstration, Larry uses a smoke pen to demonstrate how the air leaks in and out of the building.
Building science is continuously evolving, and at Dr. Energy Saver all our technicians are trained to keep up with the latest advances in diagnostic and problem solving technologies, to always provide you with the best and most cost effective energy saving services.

Experience the Dr. Energy Saver difference. Call or visit our website to locate a certified dealer near you.
For more on building science and energy saving solutions, watch our other On the Job videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel for the latest updates.

Insulating Cold Cantilevered Floors

In episode #62 of the On the Job video series, Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver, walks us through a recently completed project to once again speak about an important subject previously discussed in other On the Job episodes: Cantilevered floors and how they can become a huge source of energy loss and discomfort when improperly insulated.
Cantilevers are architectural features common in raised ranch style homes, when the second floor is made slightly bigger than the floor beneath.
That small portion of the floor that is exposed to the outside air, when not properly air sealed and insulated will allow heat to be lost to the outside and cause air to leak through making the floors very cold and the room uncomfortable to be in. Unfortunately, most cantilevers are poorly insulated, with fiberglass insulation and lack air sealing.
In this project, Larry and his team chose to insulate the cantilever with spray foam due to the high R-value per inch and air sealing properties. Other equally efficient methods can be used that perform much better than fiberglass batts, including foam board insulation and dense packed cellulose insulation.
Dr. Energy Saver technicians will always evaluate each case individually and offer the best, most cost effective and least disruptive alternative to solve the problem.
Are you ready to have the comfortable and energy efficient home you deserve? Give us a call or visit our website to locate a dealer in your area.
For more ideas to idea to save energy at home watch our other On the Job videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel to get the latest updates.

Soundproofing with Spray Foam

Welcome to episode 60 of the On The Job video series! In this video Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver, shows us a project in which open cell spray foam was used, not as an insulation, but as a soundproofing solution.

The building shown in this episode is a garage with a finished room above. Both areas were heated with a radiant heating system, which was showcased on episode 59, and insulated with spray foam. The floor above the garage was lined with a radiant barrier to reflect heat from the radiant heating lines.
After the room upstairs was finished with hardwood floors, the homeowners were worried about the noise caused by people walking on the floor, which could become annoying when in the garage.

To prevent noise transfer between the two floors, Larry and his team at Dr. Energy Saver applied open cell spray foam to the ceiling above the garage. With a density of only ½ lb per cubic foot, open cell foam is very soft and has excellent sound proofing capabilities.
The test the end of the video, compares sound between a treated portion of the floor and one that hadn’t received the application and there is a dramatic difference between the two sections.

At Dr. Energy Saver, we are always researching and working on solutions to make your home more comfortable, enjoyable and affordable to own. Visit our website to locate a dealer near you.

To learn more about ways to save energy and live more comfortably, watch our other On the Job episodes and subscribe to our channel for the latest videos and updates. .

Sealing Doors and Windows To Stop Drafts

In the 58th episode of On the Job, Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver helps us understand the importance of sealing the “shim space” around door and windows in order to eliminate drafts that make our homes uncomfortable and our heating and cooling bills higher.

When houses are built, the spaces for the windows and doors aren’t cut to fit snuggly around the window or door frame, there is usually a ¼ of an inch clearance left around the frame, for shimming and adjustments. That gap is what we call the shim space, which is often overlooked in terms of insulation or simply filled with chunks of the same material used to insulate the wall cavities – which is often fiberglass.
Fiberglass doesn’t stop air flow, and when applied to the shim gap, it merely acts as an air filter.
Many homeowners try to improve comfort and energy efficiency by installing or replacing their windows with energy efficient models, but when so much air is leaking through the shim space due to lack of proper air sealing, the investment in new windows doesn’t bring the expected results.

In this video, Larry installs one part expanding foam using a thin nozzle attachment to the gun. The thin nozzle attachment is ideal for applying the material and can reach all the small spaces around the window frame and around the door frame.
The foam will expand and close all the gaps.

A Dr. Energy Saver technician can also perform this energy saving process in existing homes and during window replacement projects.

To learn about more ways to save energy and make your home more comfortable, watch other videos of the On the Job Series and subscribe to our YouTube Channel for the latest updates.

Insulating Basement Walls with FOAMAX

Welcome to the 80th episode of Dr. Energy Saver’s On the Job Video Series!
This episode is all about the importance of basement wall insulation in home comfort and energy savings.
Basements are a subject that Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver, knows very well. After all, he’s been in the basement waterproofing business for over 20 years as the owner and founder of Basement Systems — the world’s leading basement waterproofing network.
In this video he explains why basements are so damp and cold, and how much impact an uninsulated basement can have on the comfort of your home and your energy bills.

The concrete walls in the basement are very dense and cold year-round. The ground is cold and during the winter, the outside air is equally cold. According to the laws of thermodynamics, heat tends to travel from more to less.
That means that a significant portion of heat produced by your boiler or furnace will tend to escape to the outside through the basement walls — a problem that Larry demonstrates using thermal imaging.
Watch the results in the thermal imaging camera as the basement walls are insulated with FOAMAX.
FOAMAX is a special type of polyisocyanurate rigid foam insulation board that is especially suited for basement walls. It has a high R-Value per inch, and — unlike other types of rigid foam — it can be left exposed in a basement.
FOAMAX is also waterproof and acts as a vapor barrier, directing any wall seepage to the perimeter drain system installed down below.
Visit our website for more information about FOAMAX and other basement wall insulation options, and don’t forget to subscribe to our channel for the latest videos!

Insulating Walls with Dense Packed Cellulose

Dr. Energy Saver is On The Job again…this time to help a local homeowner make his home a more comfortable and energy efficient building by improving wall insulation.

This house, like many others in the U.S., had its exterior walls insulated with fiberglass batts when it was originally constructed. In this case, Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver, demonstrates and explains why the fiberglass insulation wasn’t doing a good job of insulating the wall cavity.

Using a borescope, a diagnostic device consisting of a camera attached to a long flexible tube with a lens at the end, Larry shows us the big gap between the facing of the 2-inch thick fiberglass batt and the drywall, in this 3.5-inch thick exterior wall.

Fiberglass insulation, even when properly installed, doesn’t stop air flow and, in this case, the gap within the wall cavity left plenty of room for air to flow in and out of the living space. With the fiberglass insulation heat is consistently lost through the exterior walls during the winter, and gained during the summer, making this house very difficult and expensive to heat and cool.

For this home, dense packing cellulose insulation on top of the existing fiberglass insulation was the chosen method. Cellulose is an environmentally friendly insulating material made with shredded paper and also a powerful fire retardant – giving cellulose insulation one of the highest fire safety ratings among all insulation materials. The paper is treated with borate — a harmless, antiseptic used in eye washes and similar household applications — to inhibit mold growth and deter pests.

To install the insulation and reduce the amount of dust, powerful, high pressure blowers are used to pack the cellulose in wall cavities. To minimize disruption for the homeowner, the wall cavities are usually accessed from the outside, by drilling holes under the siding. This particular home was scheduled to get brand new siding so the holes were drilled straight through the existing cedar siding.

A surprisingly large amount of cellulose is normally used to dense pack walls, even in these walls where they were already insulated with fiberglass. From the inside of the home and during installation, Larry explains how dense packing cellulose will help stop both air flow and conductive heat transfers through the exterior walls.

With exterior walls properly insulated and air sealed, this home is now easier to heat and cool, year round – making the energy bills much more affordable. Among the many homeowners we help every day, all across the US, this is one more satisfied customer! We would love to help you too.

Visit our website or give us a call for a comprehensive home energy evaluation!

Sealing Ducts to Prevent Mold in the Attic

Welcome to On the Job Episode 74! In this episode we will discuss yet another side effect of running leaky ducts through an unconditioned, vented attic: mold.

The second most common trigger of indoor allergy symptoms in the U.S. is mold. It will grow everywhere in your home that possesses the three main conditions in which it thrives: warmth, high humidity and presence of organic matter for mold to feed on.

A vented attic, with leaky ducts just happens to provide the perfect environment for mold growth, as Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver shows us in this video.

He takes to a home in the Northeast where hot air leaking out of the ducts and condensing all over the cold attic surfaces led to a bad case of mold on the wooden roof deck. If the leak persists, the mold will keep growing and the roof deck will start to decay, eventually affecting the structural integrity of the roof.

To make matters worse, the air that began leaking into the attic is air that the homeowner paid to heat. It is now being wasted through ducts. By sealing and insulating the ducts and air sealing the attic, he completely isolated the living area from this unconditioned space. This method used by Dr. Energy Saver, will not only prevent future mold growth in the attic, but it will also make the rooms below the attic more comfortable and the entire house more energy efficient.