New Replacement Windows vs. Air Sealing

I will tell you right now - this study proves that you should not replace your windows if you want to make your home more comfortable! This study shows that replacement windows only reduce drafts by 6% compared with other, less expensive retrofit plans, including sealing the attic and other important places like the top of the foundation wall in a basement or crawl space.

I am a former window contractor, and it was exciting to have an excellent opportunity to test this Silver Spring home in three stages of improvements to the envelope or shell of the house.

I tested before any work was done. Then, I tested after air sealing and adding insulation and then I tested again after all of the old window configurations were replaced with new, high-performance vinyl windows.

THE RESULTS WERE ASTOUNDING!

Test in: 4187 CFM
Test after air sealing attic and basement: 2042 CFM (51% Reduction)
Test after installing all new windows: 1805 CFM (6% Reduction)

00:00 A Little Background on this Window and Insulation Expert
02:29 Windows are Not the Source of Your Comfort Problems
04:07 First Air Leakage Test on House Windows January 2022
06:11 How Much do Windows Account for Air Leakage in a Typical Home?
06:38 January 2023 - Air Sealing, Insulation & New Windows in Silver Spring Maryland
08:28 Birds-Eye-View of Air Sealing an Attic
09:46 Second Air Leakage Test on House with Air Sealing & Insulation Completed May 2023
11:09 Third Air Leakage Test on House with Windows Replaced June 2023

If you would like to learn more about my home performance company or get in touch, please visit https://www.hometrustremodeling.com or https://ericgans.com.

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Chapters

• 0:00 A Little Background on this Window and Insulation Expert
• 2:29 Windows are Not the Source of Your Comfort Problems
• 4:07 First Air Leakage Test on House Windows January 2022
• 6:11 How Much do Windows Account for Air Leakage in a Typical Home?
• 6:38 January 2023 - Air Sealing, Insulation & New Windows in Silver Spring Maryland
• 8:28 Birds-Eye-View of Air Sealing an Attic
• 9:46 Second Air Leakage Test on House with Air Sealing & Insulation Completed May 2023
• 11:09 Third Air Leakage Test on House with Windows Replaced June 2023

Transcript

Hello, welcome to Home Comfort Tactics today I do want to highlight an interesting thing that happened to me here over the past two months and it's something that is you know important to me because I I'm not sure you know if anybody here listening knows but I'm a former window contractor and I did that for nine years and I really believed in what I was doing and I still think windows are fantastic for a certain set of reasons and I'll kind of get to them but I had an experience back in January of 2018 where the Two Worlds that I had start you know started Living in and then eventually graduated to they collided and what I mean by that is I was a window contractor turned certified energy auditor and then I was in a situation where my understanding and my skills and the testing that we do as an energy auditor were put to the test because I had a person who had leaky windows and they swore they were leaking and they wanted me to show them how they were leaky and the information that I was providing to them and the results that I was showing them contradicted what they thought and at that moment it was uh aha moment for me because yes I had read about these things and that is what really got me hooked on being a home Performance Contractor and being an energy auditor because it was bucking you know some of the thought processes that I had been you know having for nine years but when I got in front of a person who was believing you know some of the things that I myself was once teaching and we were going around together investigating the windows and we were seeing that they were not the source of the problem you know it all made just so much sense to me and that was back in 2018 January and here we are 2023 and here's my story and it's about Windows and I think it's important because what happens around this time of year and especially as we get closer to fall and I'm not trying to fast forward some or anything but people start calling about Windows I've written a lot of things about Windows I have a lot of experience with Windows when I started my website I was you know going deep into windows and writing about how they're manufactured and things like that so as a result people sometimes find my information and they call so I can tell when there's an uptick in replacement window inquiries and people are in the market for that and then yesterday I did an energy audit where the homeowner was convinced and to the point where I could not and probably and would not try to convince them otherwise because they've already signed a contract but they are convinced that their home is drafty and cold due to the windows and proceeded to replace 22 of them and I'm not even going to get into you know how much or anything like that but what I want to you know explain here is that windows and I think the controversy and what I'm about to say is this is what I want to say windows they're not the source of your comfort problems they're not go back to my story so when I back in January of 2022. I went out it was a cold day and I did an energy audit for a nice couple in Silver Spring Maryland and you can see here I'm I'm in my mind's eye right now talking but I'm gonna put some of these photos of the windows in the house up it's a little older Rancher style I think built in the 60s

and here's the the progression to sort of get to the point did the energy audit did an air pressure test also known as the blower door test and just to kind of stop and put that into a frame the blower door test measures how leakia house is now we're not going to compare the house from you know across the street to your no it's a comparison to yourself but it's a number that tells us in a quantifiable way how leaky the house is and it's it's obtained through a pressure test and essentially all that is is a fan that pulls air out of your house and there's a little meter it's a sensitive device that not only records the airflow but also the pressure so every house has gotten down to the same negative pressure which isn't much it's just just a little bit to put enough on on the envelope of the house nothing that anybody will feel inside and as that's happening we get a recorded airflow number and that's where the story gets interesting because I took the initial reading in January 2022 and the total number let's not get into exactly what all this means but it was 4187.

CFM which is cubic feet per minute that's how much air was flowing at the front door during the test before any work was done on the home now I'm running around talking writing these blogs talking to people when I do my energy audits about you know because everybody thinks it's the windows and I'm running around telling people windows are they're only counting for 10 percent of your home's air leakage 10 is what I'm attributing to the windows so back to it fast forward one year January 2023. so the homeowner didn't do anything I hadn't heard anything I I always send a report a comprehensive report after the energy audit I always send a work scope if applicable you know if it's required or needed or asked for or requested so in that case I did and I follow up but I'm not a pest you know I I know you know if somebody's interested they know where to find me and so I didn't hear anything and then one year fast forward I get an email and um they're ready to go and they are excited because not only are they ready to go on the installation but they've signed a contract for Windows and they just want to make sure that you know if they get all the work done like we did discussed before can they also get the rebate on the windows and I said sure absolutely you can so here we are we're in a situation where the homeowner is now gotten the energy audit they've gotten the house tested for air leakage they are in the process of getting the house air sealed and insulated by me through my company Home Trust remodeling and they're also in process of getting their all of their replace all of their windows replaced so we are going to see sort of three stages of air leakage in this house before any work after air sealing and then after the windows and that's exactly what I did and here are the results it's astounding okay now I am going to put some pictures up so that as I'm talking through this a little bit there is some evidence of why and it'll kind of tie into the importance of it and it's going to help people understand that these places that I'm pointing out sometimes they even seem invisible for two reasons one inside you cannot see where these are and up in the attic they're covered by the insulation so it is just invisible's problems but what you're going to see here is a human uh just a tremendous you know um a tremendous difference in results so testing let's go back 4187 cubic feet per minute flowing through went out there I think it was in February and we air sealed the heck out of the house we got up in the attic and we sealed all the cracks crevices we did the work we you know sealed everything we possibly could added insulation went down the basement and because of the older construction we used spray foam in the basement one uh two-part spray foam closed cell on the ribbon band choice we popped all the ceiling tiles away two feet from the foundation wall and we got up there and meticulously uh insulated and sealed the entire well the accessible Rim joists and after that was done I left because I the windows were not put in and about two weeks later it dawned on me Eric you need to get out there and you need to test that house before they put those windows in so we can see what's the difference and what's the result Okay so here's how I went I went out there on a Saturday morning um the homeowner was so nice he let me come out there and test again knowing that I had to go back and test after the windows are done because that's the way it goes once you complete all of the measures so the insulation the air ceiling and the windows that's when you do the final test out so that you can get the rebate excuse me okay here's the result after air sealing the attic and the basement did the test a couple weeks later and the result was two thousand 42. CFM cubic feet per minute flowing at the door a 50 51 reduction in air leakage 51 percent so here's where windows are beautiful they will open up your view they will allow you to get a nice cool breeze on those nice fall and spring days that we have particularly in Maryland but they're not going to be getting you a more comfy or cozy house in the winter so the drum roll please okay so here's how it works out after the windows went in about two or three weeks later I can't remember I went back out and I did the blower door test the air leakage test again so I went from 41.87 after air sealing down to 2042 and after the windows were put in it went from 2042 down to 1805. 1805. so that was a difference of I'm going to do the math here two zero four two 1805. 237 cubic feet per minute so as a percentage of the overall air leakage that the house started with 41.87 that that percentage that 237 divided by the 4187 it comes out to a six percent reduction

and I don't even want to and I probably should and maybe I will if anybody is interested in the comments or something like that but I don't even want to talk about the difference in cost now again I don't want to sound like a jerk here windows are wonderful they're an enhancement they beautify a home they're great for curb appeal you can there's nothing like a nice view for for example this house had storm windows over top of old wood windows and you could barely see out so yes you know there are many many many great benefits from from getting new replacement windows but what I am really trying to say and the moral of this story is don't replace your windows to make your house more comfortable do it to make it more beautiful and more functional thank you for listening if you're interested in anything that I've had to say I've got a few other of these podcasts and I'm going to keep making them um just got ideas flowing out of my brain my website is hometrustremodeling.com in Maryland you can also find me at ericgans.com uh anyway thanks for listening [Music] [Applause]

[Music] thank you [Music] foreign