Case Studies
Part of what A Comfort Home strives to provide is a certain transparency to avoid “the man behind the curtain” aspect of how our business operates. This is why we prefer to have our customers available during our testing phase to show them first hand of improvement areas that we identify. We will also record any areas that need to be addressed to provide both a before and after picture of the improvement. Below are pictures from projects that we have undertaken to give you a better idea of what we do.
Original Test Home
The home pictured below is a 4,200 sq ft. house located in Southlake, TX that was built in 1985. The customer was complaining of high energy bills, excessive dust throughout the house, as well as hot and cold spots that were present throughout the house, particularly around sky lights. Initial blower door testing provided evidence of severe air leakage. After further investigation we discovered open air chases with vents leading directly from the living room to the attic, two false walls that were not properly insulated and allowed conditioned air to escape through the attic, a completely un-insulated skylight, insufficient insulation in various spots throughout the attic, as well as gaps in bathroom vents and between various window and door frames. In addition we also discovered evidence of carbon monoxide spillage from their hot water heater and insufficient ventilation for the exhaust gases.
Actions:
The first steps we took were to correct the safety issues surrounding the hot water heater. We provided proper ventilation around the water heater to ensure proper airflow and corrected the spillage issue. We sealed the air chases and false walls to curb unnecessary air leakage from escaping. We caulked the gaps in the bath vents, window and door frames and replaced the weather stripping to further reduce air leakage. Finally, we replaced the insulation around the skylight and wrapped it in tyvec paper to reduce airflow.
Findings:
A post improvement blower door test showed a great decrease in the amount of air leakage to the outside and a 50% drop in their air changes per hour. The customer has reported a drastic reduction in drafty areas throughout the house, a reduction in the amount of dust, and a consistent temperature throughout their home. They have also reported a huge improvement in the comfort and a drastic reduction of excessive noise in the room containing the skylight. In addition they have also experienced a 24% reduction in their monthly utility bills. Snapshots from this project are below.