Sealing out draughts
Draughts or air leakage can be a major source of discomfort. In winter, draughts can increase your heating costs by up to 25%. However, draught proofing your home is easy and cost effective, helping you save on your energy bills every year.
Did you know if all the sources of draughts in a typical home were added together, it would be equivalent to having a 1.5 metre by 1.0 metre hole in the wall!
Checking for draughts
- Look for obvious gaps - visible light under and around doors and windows
- Listen for 'rattles' or 'whistling' around doors and windows
- Feel for moving air around doors, windows, fireplaces, air outlets, vents, stairways, architraves and skirting boards
- Look for moving curtains
- Try lighting an incense stick near windows and doors and see where the smoke travels.
- The key is to control ventilation so that it occurs where and when you want it.
How to prevent draughts
A wide variety of products are available to seal gaps around doors and windows, including draught excluders, draught strips, draught seals, weather-seals or weatherstrips. Choose the product that is best suited to your type of door/window.
The main areas to focus on are external doors and windows, and doors to ventilated areas such as toilets, bathrooms and laundries.
Other ways to seal out draughts include:
- Install automatic door closers on external doors and doors to unheated rooms.
- Install self-closing exhaust fans.
- Install dampers in fireplaces to ensure hot air is not lost up the chimney when the fireplace is not in use.
- Seal permanently vented skylights (unless ventilation is required by regulation).
- Close ceiling outlets from ducted cooling systems, and seal the outlets at ceiling level. In addition, covers for roof-mounted coolers are available and can also reduce heat losses.
- Vented 'down-lights' cannot be safely sealed and should be avoided in heated areas.
- Install an external air supply to heaters that burn internal air (such as solid fuel and gas space heaters, water heaters and large cookers) and prevent the creation of draughts. Ensure the register can be shut off when not required.
- Use vegetation, other buildings and fences as windbreaks.