The best home upgrades are not necessarily those that change its look. A new countertop or a coat of paint will make your property look different but not function better. On the contrary, insulating the house, sealing its leaks, and upgrading HVAC systems affect how well it works. These upgrades can be hardly noticed visually, but they will impact how much you need to pay for your household utilities and improve your home’s comfort.
When considering what upgrades could provide the best benefit for a homeowner, the focus should be on the systems of the house that are invisible but play a vital role in making it comfortable and efficient.
Air Sealing and Insulation
There are multiple upgrades homeowners can opt for when improving their properties. However, one of the most cost-effective upgrades is the comprehensive air sealing and installation. The rationale behind such an upgrade can be easily seen since if a house cannot hold conditioned air, it forces its systems to compensate for the loss.
Air infiltration is the phenomenon that affects most existing properties’ heat losses by allowing unconditioned air to enter the house through gaps, cracks, and openings in the envelope. In many houses, air sealing is required at various openings in the envelope that are often overlooked by homeowners, such as outlets on exterior walls, holes left by pipes and wires, and gaps left by hatches and walls joining the foundation.
A proper air seal in combination with insulation according to modern standards for the respective climate zone will allow your HVAC systems to perform at a higher level since all of them depend on the thermal envelope quality.
Attic and Crawl Space Remediation
In existing residential construction, it is the attic and the crawl space that most often fall short on building envelope performance, which results in the greatest discrepancy between existing and ideal conditions. In attics, the insufficient depth of insulation, air bypass around ceiling penetrations, and ventilation problems lead to increased heat losses during both heating and cooling seasons – in other words, heat leaks out in winter and solar heat gets in during summer months. This problem becomes even worse if the existing insulation has suffered damage due to rodents, moisture, or is just insufficient according to the current recommendations for the given climate zone.
In the case of the crawl space, vapor migration from the ground raises building-wide humidity levels, causes wood degradation, and leads to the development of mold in the structural members supporting the floor. Encapsulation of the crawl space with a suitable vapor barrier along with ventilation or controlled supply of conditioned air is one of the best methods to address this issue when it comes to buildings with unfinished crawl spaces.
When it comes to tackling the problems of both zones simultaneously, Atticrawl offers the entire list of required services. In addition to insulation replacement, Atticrawl technicians provide air sealing services, complete cleaning and sanitizing of damaged areas, rodent exclusion and proofing, and installation of vapor barriers for crawl spaces. As far as upgrades go, the inspection-based approach, which entails thorough documentation of existing conditions through photo evidence, is valuable since homeowners can have peace of mind knowing that they do not need to trust contractor claims about existing conditions blindly.
Window and Door Upgrades
However, it should be noted that windows are viewed as the least energy-efficient components of buildings’ envelopes. If we look at single or early double-glazed windows, installed in homes, we can say that they make up quite a large proportion of the total gains or losses of heat from a house. Modern windows have much improved their thermal insulation properties due to their several glazing layers and low-e coating; they also help lower the noise level and the effect of radiation.
Just like windows, doors have significant potential for improvement from an insulation perspective. In particular, an insufficiently sealed and fitted exterior door will both leak and transfer heat effectively. Modern exterior door systems with insulated cores and proper sealing mechanisms are noticeably more efficient than those used in houses before mid-2000s.
Modernization of HVAC
HVAC systems grow old in terms of efficiency way before they become obsolete and require mechanical replacements. The efficiency of a system installed 15 years ago would be far worse than those used today. It would not be surprising if, on top of that, a system installed years ago has been functioning far from efficiently due to lack of maintenance.
Technological advancements in the past years have changed the face of modern heat pumps, allowing them to work properly even at sub-freezing outside temperatures. This is what prevented them from becoming a popular choice among homeowners in colder areas. Using a heat pump means reduced costs and less carbon footprint for households using fossil fuels for heating.
As per the Energy Information Administration of the United States, heating and cooling account for 51% of total energy use in an average household in America, making the upgrading of the heating and cooling system the area offering the highest potential for energy savings.
Smart Controls and Building Monitoring
The replacement of the building’s control layer demands no investment but guarantees increased efficiency immediately after it is done. The use of learning thermostats may help reduce costs through energy savings in the absence of any occupants due to their ability to automatically adjust heating and cooling levels.
A leak detection system comprised of sensors installed close to water heaters and under the sinks allows owners to be aware of the presence of a problem and avoid any severe consequences associated with moisture damage that affects the building’s structure. It becomes easy to identify the waste of energy by electrical devices due to the energy monitoring system.
The Order of Upgrade Implementation
When dealing with a budget, it is important to consider the order in which upgrades will be carried out. Upgrading a home with better air sealing and insulations should come before installing new HVAC because a leaky building would have a higher thermal load that could not be handled properly by new equipment. Thus, envelope upgrades should be done first to avoid oversizing and overpricing new HVAC.
Upgrades that are harder to notice after implementation usually prove to be more significant for homeowners in terms of their experience living in a house.
