How to get rid of energy wasters in your home

Sum­mer is over and the winter heat­ing sea­son is just around the corner. Homeown­ers and ten­ants should there­fore make good use of the trans­ition­al peri­od and look for pos­sible energy guzz­lers in their homes. A typ­ic­al weak point are thermal bridges around the win­dows. A lot of warm air leaks out of these, cost­ing the res­id­ents money in heat­ing bills. But it is not neces­sary to replace the win­dows right away. Heat leaks can be plugged with appro­pri­ate seal­ing products. Good for the envir­on­ment and our health are seal­ing tapes and mater­i­als with an eco-label such as EMICODE^© EC1.

Ger­man cit­izens still waste too much money on heat­ing. This is what a recent study revealed that was car­ried out by the thermal ima­ging cam­era man­u­fac­turer FLIR in cooper­a­tion with the mar­ket research insti­tute YouGov (source: www.bundesbaublatt.de). Accord­ing to the study, Ger­man house­holds waste a total of 8.7 bil­lion Euros a year on heat­ing – that’s 211 Euros per house­hold. A weak point are the win­dows.

Thermal bridges around win­dows cause drafts in your home and heat loss to the out­side. How­ever, it is not always neces­sary to install com­pletely new win­dows. Joints and cracks between win­dow frame and sash can be closed very well with self-adhes­ive seal­ing tapes. Any­one can do that with a little skill and prac­tice. Altern­at­ively, rub­ber seal­ing strips can be used to stop drafts. Spaces between win­dow pane and frame as well as con­nec­tion joints can be filled with inject­able insu­la­tion products like sil­ic­one and acryl­ic. Sil­ic­one is a very flex­ible mater­i­al, but unlike an acryl­ic seal­ant, it can­not be painted over. Anoth­er simple way of redu­cing heat loss via the win­dows is to cov­er the win­dow panes with an insu­la­tion film. Please note that the win­dows must be cleaned and dried before the applic­a­tion of seal­ing products.

How­ever, when it comes to seal­ing cav­it­ies between brick­work and win­dow frame and in the area around win­dowsills and roller shut­ter boxes, a spe­cial­ist should be called in. Win­dow reveals, i.e. the con­nec­tion between win­dow frame and wall, are among the weak­est points.

It can­not be stressed enough that the inter­ac­tion of cold walls and high air humid­ity is dis­astrous for the build­ing fab­ric. It also affects the health of res­id­ents if, due to the ingress of mois­ture, mold starts to grow inside. Thermal ima­ging cam­er­as, used by pro­fes­sion­al energy con­sult­ants, provide the most reli­able inform­a­tion about the loc­a­tion of thermal bridges. In a first step, how­ever, every home own­er or ten­ant can scan the interi­or walls with their hands. Cold spots on the walls are indic­at­ive of thermal bridges. With a burn­ing candle (cau­tion with cur­tains!), it can be quickly determ­ined from which dir­ec­tion the draft comes. Also, the fol­low­ing test has proved to be use­ful: Clamp a piece of paper between win­dow frame and win­dow. Close the win­dow. If the paper can now be pulled out without effort, the seal is no longer intact.