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!
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!
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!
Radiant Heating in Floors
In episode #59 of the On the Job video series, Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver, walk us through a project where radiant heating was used to make a two-level building more comfortable and energy efficient.
A high efficiency boiler was installed to heat up the water for the system. A network of pipes designed to conduct the heated water was then installed under the concrete slab at the ground level, and under the wood subfloor of the above level.
There are many advantages to using this type of heating system in a two-level building. In conventional heating systems, hot air is blown through the vents but does not heat up the concrete slab. This causes the concrete slab to still be very cold and the room would still feel very cold close to the ground.
The thick concrete slab used in a radiant heating system provides enough thermal mass to conserve the heat provided by the radiant heating system for a long time, so when the big garage doors in this particular structure are open, there isn’t a lot of heat loss to the outside, and once the doors are closed the rate of heat recovery is higher and the entire place will warm back up very quickly.
A similar network of hot water lines was attached beneath the subfloor on the upper level, attached to aluminum plates that help distribute heat through the surface, making the upstairs room just as comfortable as the ground level room.
The owner of this building is now very happy with the results in terms of comfort and energy savings. Would you like to learn more about other great ways to make your home more comfortable and save a lot of money on your heating and cooling bills?
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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!
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!
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.
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.
Ductless Heat Pumps
In episode #57 of the On the Job video series, Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver, walks us through the installation of a high efficiency ductless heat pump.
A heat pump’s job is to extract heat from the air to either cool or heat a home. During the summer, it will extract heat from the inside, and move it to the outside, to cool the living space. In wintertime, it will extract heat from the outside and move it to the inside.
Heat pumps are very efficient at extracting heat, even when the temperatures are very low outside. They will always be able to extract enough to heat up the home.
The unit being installed in this project is a split system, with an outside unit and three internal heads designed to serve three different zones of the building – each with its own thermostat. In Air Condition mode, it has an 18 SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rating). In Heating Mode it has a 9.5 HSPF (Heating Seasonal Performance Factor) rating.
Heat is transferred between the external and external units through refrigerant line sets. The shorter the line sets, the more efficient the system is. A fan in the internal units then distributes hot or cold air throughout each of the three zones.
While it may seem like a disadvantage having the hot or cold air blow from a single wall mounted unit, a high efficiency ductless system is still able to effectively maintain comfortable temperatures because there is no heat loss or gain through the ducts. The ductless heat pump is a great option when there isn’t a lot of space for bulky ductwork.
To learn more about heat pumps and other energy efficient ways to heat and cool your home, watch our other On the Job videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel for the latest updates.
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!
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. .
