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Smart home tips: Checking your doors and windows for air leaks

Checking your doors and windows for air leaks

Air leaks can be very costly for you, they drain out the energy from your home and contribute to an increase in your energy bills. Your electricity consumption can rapidly increase if there are air leaks present around the doors and windows in your home. It is important to find these leaks before they come to bite you in the utility bills. Check out some tips that can help you in detecting such air leaks so you may stop your money from flowing out unnecessarily.

Close windows and doors

You can only perform the right test of air leaks when your doors and windows are closed. This does not result in faulty testing. You should also switch off all the fans present in your room. Moving air within the room may also provide faulty results.

Perform the candle/incense stick test

You can check air leaks by using a candle or an incense stick. However, you should take care while holding a burning candle or incense stick in your hand. Keep a lighter with you, as you may need to relight them. Now, light your candle or incense stick and move it around the frame edge of your doors and windows. Make sure that your candle is held straight while you take it up and down.

Keep looking at the flame of your candle or the smoke coming out of the incense stick. You can easily detect an air leak when the flame or smoke makes a change in direction. Once you have checked around a door or window frame, try the same process with all your house windows and doors. Check the doors and windows with air leak faults and mark their location. This will help you in remembering it for when you start fixing the problem.

Do a visual inspection

You should also check whether the seals around your doors and windows are okay. Visually inspect the areas around your doors and windows. If any seal has some dirt or debris that is preventing you from closing the door properly, then note it down so you may replace or fix it later. Make sure that the seals are not damaged. Else, you will need to replace them to fix air leaks.

Perform the hand test

During the winter season, you may also check air leaks by performing a hand test. Since it is cold outside and warm inside, you may check it by placing your hand around the frames of your windows and doors. You may also check air leaks by moving your hand around air vents. If your hand feels the cold air, then an air leak may be present at that specific location. Mostly, the hand test would work better when there are large air leaks present around doors and windows.

Use an air leak detector

If you have an air leak detector at home, then it is best for you to use it to find suspected air leaks. You should turn on this device and point it at the places where leaks need to be tested. If there is an air leak present in that area, then the device will change the color of its light to blue or red. The colors depend on warm or cold air. The color of this light does not change if no leak is found.

Call a professional

If you are unable to detect air leaks around your doors and windows, then it is time to call a professional to perform some checks for you.

Summary

If your doors and windows are causing the inside air to leak, then it is time for you to be attentive. Check for suspected air leaks and fix them as soon as possible to save energy losses.

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