Sealing and Insulating the Rim Joist
The rim joist, for those who are not familiar with building terms, is the edge of the wood floor framing system. It sits on top of the foundation walls, secured to the sill plate.
In a typical home, the rim joist area is a huge source of energy loss. It often lacks proper air sealing, so outside air is consistently leaking in through the wood joints, corner, gaps and openings drilled in the rim joist for electric wires, plumbing and ducts.
When the rim joists are insulated, it is often with pieces of fiberglass batt, which is not the best choice for this type of application. Fiberglass doesn’t stop air flow, so the air still leaks in. Also, fiberglass loses R-value when it is damp. Basements tend to be naturally-damp environments due to ground water evaporating into the space and condensation issues.
The results of poor rim joist air sealing and insulation can be felt throughout the house in the form of cold floors, drafty rooms and high energy bills.
The best materials for rim joist insulation are those impervious to water. When the rim joists are easily accessible, pieces of rigid foam board can be cut to snuggly fit on top of the rim joist, between the floor joists and then air sealed with spray foam.
In this particular job, however, Dr. Energy Saver chose another great option to insulate rim joists on top of stone basement walls: two-part polyurethane spray foam.
Two-part polyurethane spray foam not only provides superior R-value (R-7 per inch), but is also expands to fill gaps and holes in the rim joist, stopping air leakages in one simple step.
In most homes, even new constructions, there is always an area that can use some improvement in terms of energy efficiency. It can be the rim joist, or your attic that need better insulation. It can be doors and windows that are leaky or air ducts that need to be cleaned, sealed, balanced or insulated. There is often an opportunity to save money and energy. Your local Dr. Energy Saver dealer can help you discover ways to improve your home’s energy efficiency, while making your home more comfortable and affordable to own.
For more tips on how to save energy at home, watch our ‘On The Job’ video series and subscribe to our YouTube channel for the latest updates.
How Sealing Attic Ducts Reduces Total Home Air Leakage
Welcome to On the Job Episode #73! In this episode, we will discuss the impact of leaky air ducts in the attic on the total rate or air leakage in a home.
Many of our On the Job videos explore the energy consumption and comfort problems caused by ducts that run on unconditioned attics.
We also have videos that explain the way air moves inside a building, the pressure differences between the bottom, top, and middle levels of the structure, and how air leakages in the attic have more of an impact on energy consumption than air leakages in the living, or conditioned spaces.
The air that leaks through air ducts in the attic is air that you pay to heat and cool throughout the year. This is air that is not getting to the rooms that it needs to heat and cool.
The test in the video will show that even when the air handler is not running, air from the conditioned space is still escaping through the ducts.
Exactly how much air escapes?
With the help of a blower door test, Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver, will test a home with unsealed air ducts in the attic, and then run the same test again after the ducts are sealed.
With no other air sealing work performed, the results show that in this particular home, the leaky ducts alone counted for 8% of the total air leakage.
How much air is leaking through ducts in your home? How much more comfortable would be the rooms in your home with this simple and affordable improvement? How much would you save in energy bills? Contact a Dr. Energy Saver dealer in your area today to find out!
Sealing and Insulating a Stone Foundation Wall with Spray Foam
The typical basement is fairly easy to heat during the winter. A large portion of it is buried in the ground, and the ground temperature is quite constant year-round.
Why then are most basements so cold and uncomfortable during the winter time? Why are they such a huge source of energy loss?
There are three major reasons. The first is the humidity. Ground moisture seeps through the walls and evaporates into the basement, increasing the relative humidity levels. Moist air is very hard to cool and heat.
The other two major sources of heat loss can be found in the portion of the basement that protrudes from the ground. This area includes the exposed basement walls and the rim joists and when under-insulated and improperly air sealed, the space loses heat due to air leakage and conductive heat transfer.
The air inside a house has a tendency to travel upward and can leak of the home through the roof and upper levels of the building. This air movement generates negative pressure on the lower levels of the building, causing a lot of outside air to be sucked in through any holes and gaps in the rim joist and the exposed portion of the basement wall.
That exposed part of the basement wall is also made out of very conductive material, and without a layer of insulation, heat is constantly being transferred and lost to the outside.
Due to the moisture present in the basement walls, the best insulation materials are those that are both inorganic and impervious to water. Although fiberglass is often used for this application, this doesn’t mean it’s the best choice. For block and poured concrete walls, rigid foam board is usually the recommended material, because the walls are regular enough to have boards attached to them.
With stone walls, however, things are much different. In this episode of ‘On The Job,’ Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver, shows us the process of insulating stone wall basements using two-part polyurethane spray foam.
Closed-cell spray foam is an excellent choice for this type of application because of its high insulation R-value (R-7 per inch!), as well as its ability to expand to fill every gap and cavity in the basement wall, air sealing in one step. Closed-cell spray foam also acts as a vapor barrier, keeping ground moisture from evaporating into the basement.
Two-part spray foam application in such a large project requires massive power, and heavy equipment, tons of material, and experienced technicians in full protective gear. Home occupants and their pets need to leave the premises for a few hours, due to the fumes produced during the application.
When spray foam in used to insulate basement walls, it also needs to receive a special coating that acts as a thermal barrier. With only a couple of inches of two-part polyurethane spray foam, these basement walls have now an R-14 insulation value and the homeowner can enjoy added comfort and energy savings.
If you are paying too much for your heating and cooling bills, or have rooms in your house that are too cold or too hot, Dr. Energy Saver can help. Contact us to schedule an estimate with a dealer in your area.
For more videos and tips to save money and energy at home, watch our ‘On The Job’ video series and subscribe to our YouTube channel for the latest updates.
Preventing Ice Damming
In Episode 72 of the “On the Job” video series, Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver, speaks about a problem that is common during cold winters: ice damming on the roof. While ice dams don’t happen very often, when icicles do appear on the edge of the roof, the consequences can be disastrous.
Ice dams occur after snow storms when heated roof shingles cause the snow to melt and the outside temperatures are cold enough to freeze dripping water at the edge of the roof, forming an ice barrier.
When that happens, the water from the melting snow gets trapped behind the icy wall and usually finds its way into the house, through the gaps between the shingles. The water not only can damage the roof itself, but it can also leak into the attic and into wall cavities, causing extensive damage to the home.
What causes ice damming and what are the ways to prevent it? Larry explains that, while not all ice damming can be prevented, in many instances, the ice dams are a tell-tale sign of a poorly insulated and air sealed home – especially in the attic area. It means that heated air is escaping from your living space into the attic and heating the roof.
Most attics in U.S. homes are unconditioned, meaning, the attic is not part of the heated, conditioned living space. The air that you pay to heat should not be escaping to the attic. By properly air sealing all the gaps that allow air to leak out, and by bringing attic insulation R-Value up to 60, as recommended by the U.S. Department of Energy for homes in the cold regions of the U.S, you will keep the heat where it belongs: inside your living space. The temperatures in the attic will be similar to the outside temperatures and the shingles are less likely to be heated and cause snow melt.
While making your home more comfortable and energy efficient, in many cases, this will also help alleviate ice damming problems and protect your property from damages caused by ice dams.
Please note that ice damming can occur due to other circumstances such as sun heat on the shingles. Monitoring your roof after snow storms, removing some of the snow from the roof, and other preventive measures might still be necessary even if your attic is properly air sealed and insulated.
Why Cellulose Insulation is Better than Fiberglass Insulation
On episode 50 of the ‘On The Job’ web series, Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver, demonstrates how different types of insulation materials perform when exposed to fire.
In Episode 51, he continues to compare insulation materials, by showing the differences in performance of two types of materials commonly used in attic and wall cavity insulation: fiberglass and cellulose.
Fiberglass insulation is frequently used in the United States, but as this video will show, cellulose insulation outperforms fiberglass in the vast majority of applications.
Cellulose insulation is entirely made of recycled paper: old newspapers, phone books, and paper stock. To make that shredded paper suitable as an insulation material, the cellulose is treated with environmentally-friendly chemicals. In its original state, cellulose is very attractive to insects and known to support mold growth. Boric acid, a harmless chemical used for decades in many household applications as an antiseptic and insect repellent, is used to deter pests and prevent mold growth.
Also since paper is highly flammable, cellulose insulation is treated with a fire-retardant material, making it outperform most types of insulation materials, including fiberglass, in terms of fire resistance.
Using a little display built to compare cellulose and fiberglass, Larry shows how quickly and easily heat passes through a layer of fiberglass insulation when compared to a layer of cellulose insulation. Cellulose is denser than fiberglass and that gives the material a better R-value and makes it better at preventing heat transfer.
That kind of performance makes all the difference during hot summer months when you are trying to keep the scorching heat from the attic from getting into your living space, or during cold days when you are trying to keep the heat from the conditioned area from being transferred to the freezing cold attic.
Another added benefit of cellulose demonstrated in this video is the material’s ability to muffle sounds from the street and from one room to another, making your home much quieter.
At Dr. Energy Saver, we use cellulose to insulate a variety of spaces. We dense-pack it into wall cavities, cantilevers, floors over the garage, and we blow it over attic floors. Our customers are always satisfied with the results in terms of added comfort and energy savings.
Our dealers work with most types of insulation and we believe that there is no blanket solution to home insulation, since each material has its own application. We also know that when it comes to energy efficiency, insulation is just one part of the puzzle.
When you call your local Dr. Energy Saver dealer for a home energy audit, the experts will evaluate your whole house and offer you the solutions and materials that will always give you the best results for each dollar you invest.
To contact a Dr. Energy Saver dealer in your area, call us or visit our website!
Attic Insulation Done Wrong… and How to Do It Right!
In Episode 71 of the On the Job Video series, Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver, walks us through the attic of a home in Connecticut that had been previously insulated by another contractor to illustrate common mistakes being perpetrated by many insulation contractors across the country.
The owners of this home had serious comfort issues, with uneven temperatures around the house and rooms that were just drafty and hard to heat. They called contractors from the state energy program for help. After a quick energy audit, the contractors informed the homeowners that they would benefit from additional attic insulation — and the contractor was then hired to add inches of blown fiberglass to the attic.
After the work was performed, however, the home was still just as uncomfortable as it was before. That is when they decided to call in Dr. Energy Saver and find out what went wrong. After performing a blower door test, Larry and his team realized that there was a significant amount of air leaking in and out of the house, greatly impacting comfort and energy savings.
Sure enough, when Dr. Energy Saver’s technicians inspected the recently insulated attic they found out that no air sealing was performed in the area. The only way to stop cold air from leaking into a house and making it uncomfortable is to stop heated air from leaking out – and since heated air rises, it usually leaks out of the upper levels of the house. The smallest gaps in the building, such as those around pipes and wires, lights, bathroom fans, duct chases and other ceiling fixtures, can amount to huge leakages.
Blown fiberglass does nothing to stop air leakages. The air flows right through it.
It is, therefore, very important to thoroughly air seal the attic completely before applying insulation. In this case, Dr. Energy Saver had to vacuum all the fiberglass insulation out of the attic just to be able to access the areas that needed to be sealed. After air sealing the attic, a new blower door test showed that they were able to reduce overall air leakage by 20%. After that, new plywood dams were built to contain the new cellulose insulation, which has a higher R-Value per inch than fiberglass. This brought the R-Value of the attic insulation up to U.S. Department of Energy’s recommended levels for the Northeast.
According to Larry, installing attic insulation without air sealing is malpractice, yet it is a very common practice among contractors because homeowners aren’t always aware of the problem. We hope this video will help homeowners across the U.S. make informed decisions when it comes to improving comfort and energy efficiency in their homes.
Fire Testing Insulation Materials
In this 50th episode of the ‘On The Job’ web series, Larry Janesky does something a little different. Rather than walking us through a recent project, he takes us to Dr. Energy Saver’s National Energy Conservation Center – a 40,000 sq. ft. training facility at the company’s headquarters in Seymour CT – to demonstrate how different types of insulation materials will behave in case of a house fire.
Fire rating of insulation materials is something often overlooked not only in energy-efficient upgrades, but also in new construction. There are some code-mandated guidelines for using different types of insulation in different areas of the house, but at Dr. Energy Saver, we believe that the fire safety of homes and buildings can be greatly improved with the right choice of materials.
This is not a scientific test. The purpose of this video is to demonstrate the significant differences in the way different insulation materials behave when exposed to fire.
Using a propane torch, Larry put all the most common types of insulation to the test, including fiberglass (faced and unfaced), open-cell foam, closed-cell foam, open-cell foam with FSK paper, polyisocyanurate foam, fire resistant open-cell foam, expanded polystyrene foam, extruded polystyrene foam, fire block foam, denim insulation, AirKrete injection foam, cellulose and Rockwool insulation.
According to this demonstration, the best performing materials by far were AirKrete injection foam, cellulose and Rockwool, but Larry explains that this should not constitute grounds for avoiding the use any of the other materials, because each different material has its specific application. When it comes to green building and remodeling, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Smart energy-efficient retrofitting is about evaluating each home’s features, energy consumption patterns and finding the best materials and techniques to achieve the most energy savings while making homes more comfortable, healthier and safer.
Dr. Energy Saver dealers nationwide have improved the homes and lives of many homeowners across the United States and we’d love to help you too! Call us or visit our website to locate a dealer near you!
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Mold in the Attic
Welcome to the 70th episode of “On the Job”! In this episode, Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver, takes us to the attic of a colonial home in Newtown, CT to speak about mold in the attic. Mold problems are quite prevalent in many conventionally insulated, unconditioned attics in the northeast – and in virtually any area of the country where winters are cold and houses are heated.
In this particular home in Newtown, the problem is so widespread that it is possible to see the dark mold stains all over the wooden surfaces. Such a wide infestation may eventually cause wood decay and compromise the structural integrity of the roof, but it also raises serious health concerns for the family living in that home.
What causes mold problems in the attic? As Larry will show, the problem begins with lack of proper air sealing. Heated air – the air that you pay to heat your home – rises and leaks into the unconditioned attic through all types of gaps, such as holes around pipes and wires, canned lights, unsealed attic hatches, and bathroom fans that vent into the attic instead of the outside. During the winter, an unconditioned attic is usually just as cold as the outside, and so are the roof and wooden structures. When heated, humid air infiltrates the freezing cold attic, it will cool down and per each degree it is cooled, relative humidity rises 2.2%, often bringing the RH levels in the attic up to 100%, at which point condensation occurs all over the cold surfaces.The wood will soak the moisture and create the perfect conditions for mold to develop.
In this particular attic, the condensation problem is so significant that the nails used to secure the roof shingles began to rust and drip all over the attic. The only effective way to stop mold from developing in the attic is to properly seal all the gaps and holes. This will help to keep heated air in the conditioned areas from escaping into the cold attic.
As it happened in this home, most builders and the typical insulation contact or will not air seal the attic before installing the insulation. That is malpractice because even if R-values are up to recommendations, common attic insulation materials such as fiberglass bats, blown fiberglass or blown cellulose, will only prevent heat from the ceiling from transferring to the attic. It will not stop air flow. Air will leak right through the insulation.
An energy efficient attic is the most important component of an energy efficient home. If your home has mold in the attic or if your heating and cooling bills are too high or even if you worry that your attic is not properly insulated visit our website or give us a call to schedule a free evaluation and estimate.
Insulating Exterior Walls with AirKrete (Complete Version)
Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver was recently on the job to help the owner of this ranch style home lower his energy bills and make the house more comfortable. This particular property was wasting a lot of energy and they had rooms that were drafty and cold. The attic was under insulated; a huge portion of the air that they were paying to cool and heat was leaking out due to poor air sealing, and the walls themselves were poorly insulated with fiberglass batts.
In this episode of ‘On The Job,’ Larry will show us how AirKrete, a brand new type of injection foam insulation material, was used to both increase the R-value (resistance to heat flow) and eliminate air leakages through the existing fiberglass insulated walls.
Fiberglass batts are a popular insulation material, frequently used to insulate wall cavities, but they have a major problem: they don’t stop air flow. The walls in this ranch were sided with wood clapboard, and there was no tar paper, Tyvek or similar material to act as a wind breaker, so the air was flowing right through the fiberglass.
To solve that problem, Dr. Energy Saver removed a few pieces of clapboard to be able to access the wall cavities from the outside in order to drill holes in the walls. A tube was inserted through these holes to inject AirKrete into the walls.
Dr. Energy Saver offers all types of foam insulation for just about any residential and commercial application. For this particular job they selected AirKrete, because the foam insulation offers many advantages over other types, especially in this particular application.
AirKrete is made with 100% inorganic and environmentally-safe compounds, and is free from volatile chemicals that produce strong and/or harmful fumes during the application. In fact, you can’t smell AirKrete at all, not even during the mixing and application process.
The shaving cream-like consistency allows it to expand and completely fill every wall cavity and any small gaps in the wall, providing added R-value (R- 4 per inch) while air sealing the walls at the same time.
The most impressive feature of AirKrete is perhaps its fire safety rating. Back at the Dr. Energy Saver headquarters, Larry demonstrates just how fire resistant it is compared to fiberglass insulation. He uses a propane torch to burn a piece of fiberglass batt and AirKrete. While the torch burns a hole right through the fiberglass, Larry is able to melt a copper penny on top of AirKrete while the material remains intact and smoke-free.
Larry then demonstrates the material’s great R-Value by melting another penny over a piece of AirKrete, which he was able to hold in his hand without burning his fingers.
Dr. Energy Saver is always researching and incorporating new materials, processes, and technologies, in order to honor our commitment to provide the most efficient energy-saving solutions, lower your energy bills and make your home more comfortable. To learn more about our products and services visit our website or YouTube channel to watch other episodes of the ‘On The Job’ series! Contact us to find an insulation contractor in your area and to schedule a home energy evaluation and estimate!
ThermalDry® Insulated Floor Decking
In episode 69 of the series, Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver is once again On the Job insulating and finishing a basement in the northeast – and introducing a brand new insulation product: ThermalDry Insulated Floor Decking.
ThermalDry Floor Decking was specifically designed to provide a safe, healthy and energy efficient alternative to plywood decking in the basement – one that will efficiently serve as subfloor for different types of basement flooring, but when in contact with water and moisture will not grow mold or rot like wooden subfloors.
It has a 1–inch thick SilverGlo insulated back and a magnesium oxide board on top, serving as underlayment for the flooring. Unlike plywood decking – which absorbs moisture from the slab and is known to grow mold and rot – ThermalDry Floor Decking is impervious to water and 100% made with inorganic materials which do not support mold growth.
The concrete floor of a basement is always an average of 10 to 15 degrees colder than the temperatures in the basement. While that might not sound like a substantial difference, the average basement floor constitutes a large enough surface to cause great heat loss, significantly increasing a home’s heating load.
Since the typical basement also houses heating appliances, it is in the homeowner’s best interest to establish the basement floor, not the basement ceiling, as a thermal boundary – even if the basement isn’t being finished right away. By insulating the basement floor, you include the basement as a conditioned space into the building envelope, conserving the heat from appliances, making the basement itself much more comfortable and the entire house more energy efficient.
At Dr. Energy Saver, we are always researching and developing ways to make your home more comfortable and lower the cost of home ownership by lowering energy bills. Check out the other On the Job videos for more ideas and tips and subscribe to our channel for the latest updates!
Insulating Exterior Walls with AirKrete (Short Version)
Dr. Energy Saver recently performed a number of energy-saving improvements in this ranch-style home to help lower energy bills and increase overall interior comfort.
In this ‘On The Job’ episode, Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver, demonstrates how they air sealed and increased the R-Value of existing walls using a new injection foam product called AirKrete.
A lot of energy was being lost through the walls of this home, because the walls were insulated with fiberglass batts, which do not stop air flow. There was no tar paper or Tyvec liner on the exterior of the walls to act as a wind breaker so the air was flowing right through them.
AirKrete foam insulation was injected in the existing walls, through small holes drilled on the outside, to access the wall cavities. AirKrete is a 100% inorganic and environmentally-friendly foam insulation product that has an excellent R-4 value per inch significantly increasing the insulating performance of the existing walls. Its consistency is similar to that of shaving cream, which allows the foam to completely fill the wall cavity and any existing gaps; air sealing and insulating the wall at the same time.
AirKrete is free of harsh, volatile chemicals and does not produce smelly or toxic fumes before, during or after application. In fact you can’t smell AirKrete at all.
Perhaps one of the most beneficial characteristics of AirKrete is its fire rating, especially when compared to fiberglass. To see a demonstration of the material’s impressive fire resistance, watch the complete version of the AirKrete video.
At Dr. Energy Saver we are always looking for new materials, technologies and techniques to make your home more comfortable, safe, healthy and affordable to own. If you have rooms in your home that are too cold or too hot, or if you would like to lower your energy bills, we can help! Visit our website to schedule your home energy evaluation and insulation estimate with a local home energy company. For more information and ways to save energy at home, watch the other episodes of ‘On The Job,’ on our website or YouTube channel!
Sealing and insulating a Whole House Fan
Fifty years ago, before central air conditioners became the norm for cooling US homes, whole house fans were used for that purpose. Installed on the uppermost levels of the house, they were actually big exhausters, which would suck hot air from inside the house and into the vented attic, causing air from the outside to be sucked in through open windows and doors.
The reason why whole house fans became obsolete is that they don’t allow homeowners to really control the temperature or comfort inside the house — like they can do with air conditioners. If the outside air is too hot and muggy, that is the kind of air that will be brought into the home.
Nevertheless, many homes in the U.S. still have whole house fans installed — and whole house fans represent a big gap in the building envelope, and can become a huge source of energy waste during the winter.
Because of a physics phenomenon known as the ‘stack effect,’ a lot of warm air — the air that you pay to heat in the winter — is escaping through that fan, into the vented attic, even when the fan is turned off.
When homeowners no longer use the whole house fan, Dr. Energy Saver usually recommends removing it entirely and patching the hole left in the ceiling with drywall.
Some homeowners, however, still like to use whole house fans to cool the house when the weather outside is nice and comfortable. So what can be done in these cases?
In episode 68 of the On the Job video series, Larry Janesky, shows us how Dr. Energy Saver deals with cases like this. The challenge is to allow the homeowner to use the whole house fan when he so chooses, but also keeping it from becoming a source of energy waste when the heating or air conditioning system is being used.
This particular attic received a lot of upgrades in order to become energy efficient, including an insulated storage deck, can light covers, Rockwool insulation and sealing around the chimney, duct sealing, a cat walk and insulation dams to contain several inches of blown cellulose, as well as professional air sealing.
The whole house fan in this case received a cover made of SilverGlo foam insulation board and completely air sealed. An airtight lid — which can be removed by the homeowner when he turns the fan on — keeps the unit fully functional, while preventing energy waste when the fan is not being used.
Whole house fans are only one of the many energy wasting details Dr. Energy Saver technicians find and fix every day, in homes across the U.S. — and we would love to help you too!
Visit our website or call us to locate a Dr. Energy Saver dealer in your area that can make your home more comfortable and energy efficient.
