May 24, 2012 Jeff Jacoby: The peace process battered Israel's reputation Near-nuclear nation threatens to walk out of summit unless it gets its way Clifford D. May: What Iran's Rulers Want Michael Muskal: 'Pro-choice' position hits record low, according to poll Chris Farrell: Are We in a Tech Bubble? Kimberly Lankford: Switching Medicare Advantage Plans Mid-Year Bryan McIver, M.B., Ch.B., Ph.D.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: Understanding hyperthyroidism and its variety of treatment options French rights groups want Google to stop suggesting 'Jew' Two-fly rule for Beijing toilets The Kosher Gourmet by Penelope Wall: PHILLY CHEESE STEAKS --- hold the steak! May 23, 2012 Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: Baghdad talks highlight Western naivete Putin's latest defiance shows Obama's whisper didn't work Tony Pugh: More private colleges offering tuition discounts Lisa Gerstner: 4 Money-Etiquette Questions Answered Mary Beth Franklin: How to Choose the Right Annuity for You Art Markman, Ph.D.: Get smart: How to bulk up your creativity muscles Israeli scientists use skin cells to help repair heart muscle Tina Susman: The wig wasn't enough: Man gets 13 years for posing as his dead mom The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen:A simple way to do fish right May 22, 2012 David S. Cloud and Kathleen Hennessey: Obama changes mind on Pakistan invite to NATO summit --- and then gets dissed by country's president US Senate approves new sanctions against Iran ahead of Baghdad talks Warren Richey: Can US group challenge overseas surveillance act? Supreme Court to decide Supreme Court: Twins can't claim dead dad's benefits Thomas M. 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Jewish World Review How Stuff Works: How a home energy audit works By Marshall Brain http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | (MCT) If you own your own home or pay for the energy used in a rental, you know that it is easy to spend a lot of money heating and cooling your space. Bills of several hundred dollars per month are not uncommon, especially in the winter. The money typical pays for electricity, natural gas and heating oil. With the cost of energy rising, along with federal (energysavers.gov) and power-company programs to provide incentives, home energy audits have become one tool that home owners can use to cut energy costs and save big. Let's take a look at how a home energy audit works. One of the most effective tools in a home energy audit is thermographic imaging. Using a special temperature-sensitive camera, the operator can actually see changes in temperature. The camera needs a 15 to 20 degree temperature difference between the interior of the home and the outside air temperate. Then, when the operator points the camera at a wall, it is almost like looking at an x-ray of your home. Every place in your walls, floors and ceiling that have poor insulation show up on the camera in bright colors that make problems easy to see. The cameras are so sensitive that they can see the wood hidden in the walls, because wood conducts heat at a different rate than the cavity on either side of the wood. With the latest cameras, even the individual nails holding up the drywall become visible, because the metal conducts heat better than wood. The camera will also be able to see leaks around windows and window sashes, glass that is not insulating well, cracks around doors that lack weatherstripping, holes that are allowing air to leak in and so on. Armed with this information, it is easy to know what to fix. You also know what to fix first, because the camera lets you see the areas of greatest temperature difference. The second type of test is called the blower door test. The equipment looks like a big fan that the inspector will mount in one of the doors of your home. The fan typically hooks to a computer that controls it. You close all of the other doors, windows and dampers in the house and then let the fan start sucking the air out of the house. What you get is a reading of how much air is leaking into the house. This is expressed as air changes per hour. An "air change" means that all of the air in the home has been replaced by air from the outside. Think of it this way — if you leave a window open, a lot of heated or cooled air is going to leave the house and cost you a lot of money. That's obvious. A lot of small leaks can add up to the same thing. The blower door test tells you how many leaks you have. If the inspector is using a thermal camera with the blower door, the air leaks show up as big temperature differences. If not, the leaks can be seen with smoke puffers. Leaks are typical around doors, windows, window sashes, baseboards, outlets and switches, and any place where there is a hole in the house (e.g. for a pipe, wire or vent to enter the house). A well-sealed home might allow three air changes or less per hour. A poorly sealed home will allow a lot more. The third type of test is called a duct blaster. It is a fan that tests the furnace ducts for leaks. Obviously, if the ducts are leaking, that is a problem because the furnace is blowing heated and cooled air into the attic or crawlspace instead of your home. It is also possible for leaky return ducts to suck in dusty or moldy air from the crawlspace and contaminate the home. The duct blaster can tell you if you have leaks and help you get them fixed. Things like new windows and doors can be expensive. But lots of big leak problems can be fixed for very little money with caulk, weather-stripping and tape. And insulation can be a bargain over time if added to the attic. An energy audit tells you exactly what you need to do and how to save the most money. Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here. Comment by clicking here. Previously: How Omega-3 fatty acids work Social networking How trick birthday candles work How electric cars like the Nissan Leaf work How a manned mission to Mars works How gold works How bad breath works How the ultimate sunglasses work Any rocket is easily converted to a missile How to have a great staycation How a black box works How a solar roof works How nuclear bombs work How the Hubble Space Telescope works How hay fever works How to know when to rent vs. buy How swine flu works How a kidney dialysis machine works How children die in hot cars How a trillion dollars works How electronic cigarettes work How chimpanzees work How in vitro fertilization works How supertankers work How poisons work How corn works How dog ID chips work How President Obama's limousine works How emergency power works How aircraft carriers work How antibiotics and vaccines work How mucus works How iron and steel work How aspirin works How igloos work How the Predator UAV works How retention ponds work How water absorbers work How melamine works How digital music works How coal mining works How an economic depression works How the liver works How 3D movies work How oil pipelines work How jet packs work How seismographs work How Olympic technology works How Personal Rapid Transit works How 3G works How the Global Position System (GPS) works How octane works How cruise missiles work How submarines work How miles work How octane works How food preservation works How beer works How holding your breath works How smoke detectors work How heat pumps work How your night vision works How concentrating solar collectors work How your key fob works How the common cold works How the Large Hadron Collider Works How making a TV show works How dry cleaning works How exoskeletons work How an oil refinery works How landfills work How the Orion spacecraft works The cutting edge in HDTV Redefining the CD How the HDMI cable scam works How glow-in-the-dark toys work How the subprime mortgage crisis works How gift cards work How Tasers work How giant TV screens work How foreclosure works How Air Force One works How wildfire fighting works How vitamins work How ejection seats work How reattaching limbs works How hot air balloons work How paparazzi work How counterfeiting works How CDs work How the Edsel worked How Stinger missiles work How hybrid cars work How sharks work How mosquitoes work How diesel engines work How water towers work How the Dawn mission works How Kassam rockets work How the North American Eagle works Why aren't we flying to work? How tofu and soy milk work How Colony Collapse Disorder works How airbags work How the U.S. income tax works How gum works How caffeine works How Daylight Saving Time works How a cruise missile works How snow making works © 2007, How Stuff Works Inc. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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