Caulk & Seal

If you can squeeze toothpaste from a tube, you can just as easily caulk and seal your house against energy-sapping leaks and cracks.  This task can get a be a little messy and sticky until you figure out the nuances of using caulk and expanding foam, but it is a great complement to other ideas like having your ducts sealed or sealing your outlets and switches.

Exterior

Take a walk around the outside of your house and look for gaps in the siding.  If your house is on a foundation, get low and inspect where the walls meet the slab, and inspect particularly where two materials meet to make a seam.  Fill small holes and cracks with a caulk formulated for concrete and/or mortar repairs.  Use a caulking gun to apply a liberal amount of caulk into the gap, and then follow behind with your finger or a rag to smooth out the material and push the excess into any remaining gaps.

If you find gaps too large to fill with caulk, you can use a can of expanding foam. Spray-on expanding foam comes out of the can as a wet, sticky "goo," so take care to ensure that you don't get it on yourself.  Follow the instructions on the can which indicate that you should fill the gap to less-than-50% full.

The expanding foam will expand.  You might be surprised how much it will grow!

Both of these products are difficult to save--that is, once opened, they tend to dry out quickly...especially the expanding foam (the instructions even indicate to expect only one use per can.)  So, plan on using up all the material, or coordinate with a friend or neighbor to share the cost and use of each.  This way, two households will gain the "green" benefits and less ends up in the landfill.

Expanding foam in a large gap where the siding meets the foundation.  This stuff really expands!

Concrete/mortar repair caulk at the seam between the wall and concrete foundation on the front porch.

Interior

Sealed-up kitchen drain pipe.

Much like the caulking for the exterior, a tube of caulk on the interior can close up many of the small cracks and leaks that lets our heated and cooled air escape into the interior of our walls and then into the attic.

Checking behind my stove, I discovered that the electrical outlet for the stove was surrounded by gaps on all four sides.  Similarly, the water supply lines and drain pipes that come out of the wall underneath my sinks all had wide gaps that was letting conditioned air seep straight out.

Bonus!

As much as this does to keep your heated and cooled air inside the house, it also serves to keep insects and rodents out.

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Happy Greening!
Andy