When building a new home, it pays off to think about energy efficiency, as many construction details done incorrectly or missed altogether can leave a lasting effect on a home’s energy consumption.   Yet armed with knowledge, some easy-to-come-by materials, and a little elbow grease, an existing home can be made more energy efficient.  Indeed, “weatherizing” a home has become a popular way to save money in the face of rising energy costs.  This fall, a handful of Deltec employees are getting together to tackle easy opportunities to weatherize each others’ homes.

Last Sunday we took on the home of our Director of Engineering, where, even having only one weekend morning to work, we found and corrected two all-too-common energy efficiency shortfalls:

1.  Leaky Band Joist

This basement, like many basements, is built of cinder block walls. The wooden components of the house above;  the floor joints and wall framing, sit directly on top of these concrete walls, often with nothing at all installed between wood and concrete.   This makes for a junction that is far from airtight, and in many places we could see light from outside through the gap between wood and cinder block.  Not only was this gap allowing cold air into the basement in the winter, making downstairs TV watching far more chilly than necessary, it was letting in that cold draft right underneath the floor of the house upstairs.  The homeowner had commented that the floors near outside walls sure were cold in winter!

The area where the wooden floor joists of a house rests on the cinder block walls of the foundation is called the “band joist.” In some cases, we could see daylight through the gap between the wood and the cinder block.

The fix was relatively simple: we sealed the gap between wood and concrete around the entire perimeter of the basement with silicone caulk.

2.  Leaking Air Ducts

Duct-work is designed to bring warmed or cooled air from your mechanical unit and into the living spaces of your home.  You would think duct-work would be extremely air-tight, the better to deliver as much warmth or coldness as it can.  In reality, most duct-work is anything but airtight, leaking as much as 25%–one quarter–of the air it carries.  Most of these leaks occur at joints in the sheet metal that make up ducts.

Sheet metal duct work leaks out a lot of the air it carries. That’s because it is made of multiple segments joined together, with nothing to seal the joints.

In this house, we covered these seams with a special kind of fiberglass tape–NOT duct tape, which loses it’s stickiness throughout several seasons of temperature swings–and painted over the tape with a good thick layer of duct mastic.  Duct mastic comes in a tub at a home improvement store and looks and feels like putty–but dries into a tough but flexible air-tight material.

Stay tuned for more home energy efficiency projects we will do for each other.

Many Deltec customers discover us through a web search for yurt-style homes. We find they are looking for a circular home that is strong, provides security against high winds, gives them an open filling, is easy to assemble and treads lightly on the earth.  All this and more can be found with the Deltec prefabricated panelized circular building system.

What is the difference between Yurts and Deltec Panelized Homes?

YURTS

By definition, the yurt began as a tent like dwelling consisting of a cylindrical wall of poles in a lattice arrangement with a conical roof of poles, both covered by felt or skins. The original yurt was intended to be moved by nomadic tribes, whereas most of today’s Western style yurts are meant for permanent shelter.

Modern yurts are now made from more contemporary materials (aluminium rivets, aircraft cable, and polyester materials) with heat-treated and fine finished wood.  They are typically set upon wood platforms and supported by simple post-and-beam systems.  While modern materials are used, their basic architectural principle (circular arch) remains the same as used five hundred years ago.

PANELIZED HOMES

The National Association of Home Builders defines a panelized home as a home built in a climate-controlled facility, in “paneled sections” that are shipped and assembled at the homeowners’ building site.  Today’s panelized home building systems retain the best aspects of stick frame construction. They combine time-tested building methods with modern technology to deliver customizable, energy-efficient, beautiful new homes. Often, the panels are constructed with the insulation, windows and siding pre-installed at the factory making it even less expensive, easier and quicker for the homeowner.

The Deltec prefabricated home package is precision engineered in our state of the art factory and is adaptable to local building codes anywhere in the world.  Our home kit includes all of the structural components needed and usually takes less than a week for a local contractor to assemble on site. The interior finish is just simple carpentry.

Read more about Deltec’s prefabricated building system.