The library has a number of books that provide advice and instruction to reduce home energy usage. Craig likes this book that we borrowed from the Ann Arbor library system. We were shocked to learn that the horizontal joint between the basement and first floor where the basement concrete wall transitions to other building materials at the ground surface is gap that circles the entire house with direct access to the outside environment.
We were lucky in that our basement is largely unfinished so we had easy access to the gap and were able to weatherize this heat leak. While it's a smart move to replace old windows and add extra insulation in the attic, Craig believes that fixing the gap in our house was probably the most important improvement to energy efficiency.
An interesting gadget to measure energy usage is the watt electricity usage monitor. The Ann Arbor Library has several of these gadgets that can be checkout for home use. See here to check one out.
Astrid
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