I don't know if it gets nerdier than when I willingly decide to work on this on my day off.
I have an Ecobee Thermostat, which tracks datapoints and lets you download the history month-to-month.
We've had extremely high electricity bills this past summer. It's a new house to us (built in 84), so the bills were definitely a shock. I wanted to do what we could to weather-seal the house before winter hits, and then measure those efforts with the Ecobee data. Of course, I need to do this as cheaply as possible. We may reinsulate the attic at some point, but that isn't in the budget at the moment.
Here are the efforts I've taken towards weather-sealing:
Onto the data.
To measure the effectiveness, I'm thinking of using a simple ratio measured week to week as the weather fluctuates. Do I need to weight the ratio with our desired indoor temp somehow? That's 75 during the day, 72 at night.
Average Fan Running Hours Per Day (by week) / Average Outside Temp (by week)
In my mind, if the weather-sealing is effective, the house temp shouldn't fluctuate as much, therefore resulting in a lower ratio. However, it feels like something is missing. How do I incorporate our set indoor temp? Also, there are certain factors out of my control, such as the kids leaving the back door open, but what are you going to do? Very curious to hear other's thoughts on this idea.
I have an Ecobee Thermostat, which tracks datapoints and lets you download the history month-to-month.
We've had extremely high electricity bills this past summer. It's a new house to us (built in 84), so the bills were definitely a shock. I wanted to do what we could to weather-seal the house before winter hits, and then measure those efforts with the Ecobee data. Of course, I need to do this as cheaply as possible. We may reinsulate the attic at some point, but that isn't in the budget at the moment.
Here are the efforts I've taken towards weather-sealing:
- Front door had some gaps and wasn't sealing tight against the vinyl. I added a strip of rubber weatherstrip along the door jamb and adjusted the strike plate so it would still latch and sit tight against the rubber. My immediate thought was that the seal was extremely tight.
- There were two static windows that had gaps. 3/4 inch (HUGE gap, I know), the other was a small crack, maybe 1 mm. I stuffed foam caulk saver into the larger gap and sealed it with window glazing. The smaller gap was just filled with window glazing.
- Our house doesn't have a traditional attic. No storage space except for the HVAC, and, there is a door to access this. It's basically a small interior door. It's not a ceiling access. Whenever we have certain doors upstairs closed and the HVAC is running, air from the attic pulls into the house from that door. I added strips of weatherstrip along the jamb and the bottom. Seems to be effective. I don't feel any attic air coming in when the HVAC is running. Before, you could hear it whooshing in. I need to add some sort of relief for this in the future, like a flow vent, but I can keep the upstairs door open most of the time until then.
Onto the data.
To measure the effectiveness, I'm thinking of using a simple ratio measured week to week as the weather fluctuates. Do I need to weight the ratio with our desired indoor temp somehow? That's 75 during the day, 72 at night.
Average Fan Running Hours Per Day (by week) / Average Outside Temp (by week)
In my mind, if the weather-sealing is effective, the house temp shouldn't fluctuate as much, therefore resulting in a lower ratio. However, it feels like something is missing. How do I incorporate our set indoor temp? Also, there are certain factors out of my control, such as the kids leaving the back door open, but what are you going to do? Very curious to hear other's thoughts on this idea.
