Measure Guideline: Wall Air Sealing and Insulation Methods in Existing Homes: An Overview of Opportunity and Process: Fid-Bau Portal

Measure Guideline: Wall Air Sealing and Insulation Methods in Existing Homes: An Overview of Opportunity and Process

Modern high performance homes feature airtight building envelopes with high levels of thermal resistance that control the flows of heat, air, and moisture into and out of the home. Homes built before current building codes may have high levels of air leakage and inadequate insulation. Both issues increase heating and cooling losses and demands on heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems and decrease occupant comfort and indoor air quality. Air leakage can account for a high percentage of heating and cooling bills in an especially leaky house, and homes built before 1980 often have little or no wall insulation. Given that walls can represent most of the building envelope area, ensuring that walls have proper levels of insulation is an essential part of any home energy retrofit. Energy retrofit projects should consider and address air sealing in walls and wall junctions to semi-conditioned or unconditioned adjacent spaces. This guideline provides renovators and retrofit contractors an overview of considerations when including wall air sealing and insulation in an energy retrofit project. It also outlines project risks, various materials for insulating, possible field inspections needed, installation procedures, and the benefits and drawbacks. The purpose of this guideline is to provide the outline of the overview and process of insulating and air sealing walls so that home retrofit professionals can identify approaches to air sealing and insulation measures. This new measure guideline builds on Building America research and synthesizes information from relevant guidelines from the home energy retrofit industry, as well as weatherization education documentation and product manufacturers literature.