Making Your Home As Energy Efficient As Possible With Energy Saving Exteriors

Making Your Home As Energy Efficient As Possible With Energy Saving Exteriors

North America has recently experience an extremely cold and record-breaking winter. This has caused most of us to dream of warmer days. The other thing we have dreamed about is saving money on our energy bills. I think we all would like to save energy by making our homes as energy efficient as possible.

In this area hands down the best investment we could make is in energy saving exteriors to our home.

This way, we'll be able to only use the minimal amount of energy for our home and that means we would pay the least amount on our utility bills.

Energy efficient homes are homes that are designed in a way which optimizes the efficient usage of resources, particularly energy and water in our home. They are also designed to be less harmful to the environment and produce only minimal environmental pollution. We often call them Green Buildings.

Though trying to take your home, which might have been built many years ago when thinking green wasn't on the horizon yet and making it green, is extremely hard and often not possible, there are many things that we can do to improve them and make them friendlier to the planet and to our pocket book.

One of the major areas we can make improvements to is our homes exterior.

One of the major areas our home loses heat is through drafts. These drafts often come through cracks and holes that seem to be insignificant at first glance. Yet cracks and holes can be just as bad as leaving a window open throughout the winter.

Finding and filling these draft spots will cut your heating bill significantly over time. It is easy to find many of these draft spots by taking a walk around the exterior of your home and having a good look for cracks and holes.

Look specifically at the places where the siding meets the foundation and around your doors and windows where they meet the siding. Check for gaps around pipes, electrical wires and conduit, and other things that penetrate the exterior of your home. Some cracks and holes may seem insignificant yet it is amazing how much cold they can let in. Start by sealing these cracks with a latex caulking. For larger cracks and holes use expanding foam. This will keep the heat in and winter's cold out.

Inspect your foundation if you have a crawlspace for exterior vents which need to be closed for the winter. Some of your foundation inspection will need to be done from the interior. Did you know that almost 30 percent of your heat loss can be through your foundation walls if they are not insulated? This goes for a crawlspace as well. The rim joist and bond plank can have major leaks. Seal the bond plank to the concrete foundation wall with some caulking and insulate the rim joist with R20 bats. This will do a lot to help. If the walls are not insulated you could use ridged foam or frame walls with 2x4's and insulate with R13 bats.

The exterior walls of your home may also not be insulated at all or not up to code. This problem is not as easily remedied but is no less important. If your house is sided you can remove the siding and install ridged foam exterior sheeting on your house and then use a house wrap to tighten up the drafts. After that you will need to install new siding. This will cost you a fair amount of money but if your home needs new siding anyway the extra cost of the insulation and house wrap is well worth the cost.

There are many other types of energy saving exteriors that will maximize the energy efficiency of your home. Some examples are new vinyl windows, new steel insulated doors, and even more. Utilizing these energy saving exterior ideas may possibly help you save roughly 30% to 50% and up.

It is time to act to save you money and the environment as well.

I has been in the renovation business for more than 30 years. I also believes very strongly in going green. With this combination i has developed over the years a huge amount of information about how to save energy and save money on your energy bills. For more great information on, secrets to energy saving exteriors, visithttp://savingenergyhome.info.

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