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Looking For Drafts With A Candle
When you are about to renovate your home, there is a great test that you can do to find out where drafts are coming in. One draft coming into your home can lower the temperature in your home greatly, and it can cost you a lot of money over the years because your furnace is forced to work so much harder in order to provide you with heat.
This is why it is so important that you make sure that your home has no drafts, and if there are drafts, you need to fix them by either replacing windows and doors, or caulking areas where there is air coming in.
One of the best, and cheapest, ways to do this is the candle test. In the fall season, especially on a windy day, light a candle and walk around your house with it.
As you walk around the house, stop in front of windows and doors and see if the candle flickers. Try not to move too much, otherwise the candle will flicker. Stand still and see if the candle flame moves away from the window. If the candle flickers away from the window, put a tape marker next to where the draft is coming from. You will have to move the candle along the window or door to find the exact spot where the air is coming in.
Make sure you go through the entire house to find out where exactly there is air coming in and put a marker everywhere that you find a draft. Then, you put the candle down and you go around caulking spots that can be fixed with caulking. This will probably eliminate most of the places where air is coming in. However, you may have to replace a door frame if it is bringing in air to the house.
You should also make sure your fridge is lot leaking cold air into your home. Just take a piece of paper and close the fridge door on it so half of the paper is sticking out. Then, pull the paper. If the paper comes out of the closed fridge door easily, you have air escaping and you may have to replace your fridge.
Finding cold air in your home is important to ensure your furnace is not working too hard. The less your furnace has to work, the more money you save and the better off the environment will be.