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.

Air Sealing and Insulating Can Lights

Can lights (or recessed lights) became so popular in recent years that many new homes these days are built with them, so they are already installed when the homeowners move in.

Compared to other common overhead features, can lights are easier to clean and maintain, and the light output helps divide the space, define task areas, and highlight artwork and architectural features. They are also especially valuable in low ceiling areas.

For all the reasons above, new and newly remodeled homes tend to have this type of feature in at least some of the rooms. Some have them all through the house.

There is only one problem concerning can lights: they can be a huge source of energy loss year round!

Older fixtures — especially those installed before 2004 — were built with little to no regard to energy efficiency, and have plenty of holes and gaps to allow conditioned air from the living space to escape into the attic.

How much energy can you lose? Using high-tech home energy diagnostic equipment and procedures, such as a blower door test and thermal imaging camera, Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver, demonstrates just how much energy is lost through the gaps left in and around can lights.

He also demonstrates how to simply and quickly stop air leakages through can lights using covers specifically designed for this purpose. There are many different types of can light covers, and in some cases, an energy conservation expert can even build a custom cover, using fire-retardant materials. In this particular home, a rockwool cover was used, and spray foam insulation was applied to seal air leakages and secure it in place.

If you suspect energy waste through canned lights or any other area or fixture of your home, call Dr. Energy Saver for a complete home energy evaluation and let us help create an energy-efficient home that is at the same time comfortable and affordable to own.

For more tips on how to save money and energy at home, visit our website or watch other episodes of Dr. Energy Saver’s ‘On The Job’ videos!

Ducts in an Attic

In episode 66 of the On the Job video series, Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver, is back to once again talk about the energy waste problem created by HVAC ducts that run through an unconditioned attic.

The energy penalties in these cases are so significant that Larry had previously dedicated an entire episode to discuss this problem — the ‘Problems with Ducts in the Attic’ video available on Dr. Energy Saver YouTube Channel — and is now back to the subject.

This time, with the help of thermal imaging equipment, Larry walks us through a recent inspection performed by his company, demonstrating exactly how much heat can be gained or lost year round through ducts that run through unconditioned attics.

In this particular home, the inspection performed in mid-May found an unconditioned attic with temperatures reaching scorching 115 degrees, housing long lines of air ducts and an air handler — all of which were also very leaky contributing for an even higher rate of energy loss.

The running air conditioning system was consuming energy to cool the air down to approximately 55 degrees while the air ran through a handler with a metal case that was just as hot as the attic itself. With long lines of uninsulated ducts, it kept gaining heat on the way to the rooms it was supposed to cool.

In the master bedroom — closest to the handler — the air coming out of the vents was only 2 degrees below the target temperature. That means that the air conditioner would have to work longer and harder just to make that room comfortable.

In another room, further from the handler, the air gained so much heat while running through the long, uninsulated duct that it was coming out of the vents 10 degrees hotter than the target temperature. That room simply couldn’t be made comfortable until late at night.

If you consider that an average of 40% of all the energy consumed by the typical home in the US goes towards heating and cooling, you can imagine how much energy and money this homeowner had been wasting year-round. Over the course of many years, just because the uninsulated and leaky air ducts run through an attic that is scorching hot during the summer and freezing cold during the winter, the homeowner was literally throwing money away.

At Dr. Energy Saver, we are passionate about finding and fixing problems like this one. . Subscribe to our channel for the latest videos on how we can make your home more comfortable and energy efficient. Or call us to locate a dealer in your area and schedule your free estimate!

Insulating Multi-Level Attics

Unusual architectural features, such as multi-level attics make a home unique by giving it personality and helping to define the building’s style.

Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver, demonstrates how these charming features can significantly impact the home in terms of energy efficiency.
Multi-level attics create spaces that are hard to access, and therefore hard to insulate and air seal. These areas are often overlooked during construction, and they usually become gaps in the building envelope.

If properly insulated attics are the most important feature of an energy-efficient home, gaps in insulation and sealing in the attic are usually the number one sources of energy loss. In multi-level attics, small portions of the walls usually protrude from the attic floor. If not properly air sealed and insulated, they will cause heat from the living area to be lost to the unvented, cold attic during the winter, through the wall cavity. In the summertime, cool, conditioned air will escape and the scorching heat from the attic will transfer to the living space putting a burden on your air conditioner system.

Each insulation challenge demands a custom-designed solution. There are several techniques and insulation materials that can be used to close these gaps and the choice will depend on specific features of the area in question.

In this particular case, the portion of the wall protruding from the attic floor was insulated with SilverGlo foam board insulation, and air sealed using spray foam.

Are you experiencing inexplicably uneven temperatures around the house, with some rooms that are either much colder or much hotter than others? Does your home feel drafty or damp? At Dr. Energy Saver, we can help you fix all these problems and make your home more comfortable and affordable to own, by lowering your energy bills.

So don’t wait! Give us a call today and see just how easy it is to have a greener, more enjoyable home.

For more tips on how to save money and energy at home, watch other episodes of Dr. Energy Saver’s ‘On The Job’ videos!

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. .