Got the energy efficiency bug today. Did some homework, ordered new seals for the garage entry doors, ordered a cover for my whole house fan (didn’t even think about this but it’s basically a giant leak to the attic. And then remembered I have holes in my walls from old intercoms that we just pictures over. Going to repair those up. Ordered a duct test, pretty sure there are some leaks up there.
Hopefully I can drive down our bill a little bit.
Undoubtedly the best course of action to be taken.
Sealing up all the air gaps you can is vital in achieving the best efficiency you can get. Next is plugging up those gaps in the insulation like your whole house fan and the intercom holes. if you have recessed lighting those cans need to be air tight as well.
Other things would include drapes / shades to keep the sun from heating objects in the house during the summer, I know Capt obvious there. Also when cooking use the exhaust fan in the range hood to remove the hot air from the stove, otherwise the AC system has to pump out that heat.
Most attic fans sold at the diy stores are too powerful and result in pulling hot air into your house, unless your top plate is sealed perfectly. I doubted this when I was told this until one day when it was really hot, the attic fan was running and I came in from outside and flung the door shut behind me but it didn’t shut, when I walked over to shut the door I could feel the hot air being pulled inside. I popped up into the attic and turned off the attic fan and that flow stopped.
Keeping your AC condenser clean also helps. From a friend of mine who has worked on HVAC systems his whole career, do not use the high efficiency air filters in your house, use the normal ones and change them each month. The high efficiency filters produce too much restriction / reduce air flow and hamper the efficiency of your heating and AC system. I had a high efficiency air filter at my last house, it was in the attic and was a very large air filter (probably 10 times the surface area of the typical drop in style, 2’ high and 3’ wide) that got changed annually, where the drop in style would have normally been installed in the return air grate was left open.
If you can, check the cleanliness of the squirrel cage and the evaporator, I had mine cleaned after 10 years of service and even with that massive high efficiency air filter both the squirrel cage and evaporator were pretty dirty. After I had those things cleaned there was a noticeable increase in air flow, and the cycle times of the AC and heater were dramatically reduced. Hot moves to cold, I think that’s the first law of thermodynamics, since your AC is not cooling the air, rather it is removing the heat, having the evap coils as clean as possible will result in the best heat transfer.
Be sure and clean your refrigerator coils as well as the fan. If they’re dirty you will notice that the refrigerator runs a lot less.
