Sealing Outlets to Reduce Air Infiltration

So one of my daily chores right now is to seal a few light switch and electric outlets on the exterior of my home. We had a blower door test last fall http://www.simplysolarwi.com/Home_Performance.html and one of the places where there are leaks were our exterior wall outlets and light switches.

Don't believe me? I wasn't so sure about it either, but then I saw the leaky cold air on the thermal cam, and felt the cold air it when I put my hand on an outlet. The phone jack ones are the worst!

How do you do this?
Well, this is what I did -- Open up the switch plate and look at your outlet. If they are anything like mine you are going to see a gap between the electrical box and drywall. This is where cold or hot air can infiltrate and make our heating and cooling costs go up. Check out the left side of this outlet box. Can you see the hole down the side? It was blowing cold northern air right on through. This is where I used the silicone caulk to fill in and seal these gaps. I go all the way around and go over the screws with 100% silicone caulk. Next I hold my hand up and go around to see if I can feel any more leaks.


After that you put on outlet switch sealer. This is a thin fire resistant electrical box cover. They come in outlet or switch formation. I haven't found them in multiples yet, so sometimes you have to jimmy them to do doubles or triples. There are some examples down below. i got these at True Value. So take out your cover and shimmy it backward towards the electrical box. Get it on good and tight or you will have a hard time getting the face plate back on. Watch that you don't squish the silicone onto your hands.

Now make sure the foam holes line up with the electrical box screw holes and put the face plate back on and screw it in. Besides an odor for a little while, it really isn't so bad. Please make sure you aren't in a totally enclosed area and check that all your caulking is fire rated so you don't burn down your house. Silicone doesn't fire up until 1000 degrees F so if my house gets that hot I think I will have bigger problems. As always, keep all your receipts for these projects. You might be able to get back some money from your state or federal government.

January's Comparison of Therms and KWhs

So, on the road to any solar system you have to reduce consumption. We have been making changes, but now we have the data from two years to see if our changes have reduced our energy consumption.

This past year made some pretty big changes.

• We insulated the garage with a eco-friendly spray foam and drywalled over this. This should reduce gas and heat with less heating and cooling needed. Not to mention we don't have to put our coats on to go out to put recycling. We still need to tape and mud for a better seal, but we are waiting for warmer weather to do that.
• We programmed our thermostat. It is now set at 66 degress from 6am -8pm, 64 degress for two hours on either side of that, and 62 degress from 10pm until 4am. It really isn't too bad until after 10pm. Jason may disagree, but he likes the lower gas bill. This saves both gas and electric consumption with decreasing the heating load. (The gas heats the air, but the electricity blows it).
• I have also been washing many of our clothes on cold and turned down our water heater. This should decrease our gas consumption for heating water.
• We replaced all of our lights in and out with CFBs and we have have been turning out our lights as much as possible. We know about the mercury and promise we are recycling any that burn out. This decreases electric consumption.
• Another one is turning off electronics at night. Those computers and blinking lights are sucking electricity while we are all snoozing.
• Also, I am in the process of sealing all our exterior wall light switches and outlets. (More details to come on this one.) This should also help with heat and cooling losses and reduce heating and cooling. If we reduce our air leakage by 20% we can get money back from our state program. This might be a tough one to do, but we are trying!

Electricity
January 2008 - 1607 kWh

January 2009 - 1075 kWh

Gas
January 2008 - 248 Therms (average temp 21 degrees)

January 2009 - 264 Therms (average temp 13 degrees)

So, electricity decreased consumption quite a bit! Gas was up a bit, but the weather didn't help us much on that count. Stay tuned this month we are wrapping the water heater, the hot water pipes, taping the forced air pipes, and getting a low-flow shower head. Hopefully, we will reduce that gas consumption for next month! So onward and forward.