Daily Home Renovation Tips

Yesterday we wrote about how we used duct tape to secure the fitting between the vent opening in the basement ceiling duct and the vent cover installed in the drip ceiling tile.

Today we want to write about our recent use of duct tape in the furnace room.

You know, high efficiency furnaces are great. The provide better utilization of natural gas to generate more heat from a lesser amount of the non-renewable energy resource.

However, if the duct lines are not properly installed, the benefit from paying more money for the high efficiency furnace through reduced heating bills will not be realized if that heated air does not reach the intended areas of the home.

I had noticed previously that the furnace room in the basement of our home was quite warm in the winter. I simply put that down to it being the location of the furnace. In some homes the furnace is in a very open area. However, in our home, the furnace room is actually enclosed on all 4 sides; it’s just the way the house was when we purchased it almost now 2 years ago.

Never living in a home where the furnace was in an enclosed room I simply thought that this is how a furnace room was supposed to be; i.e. warmer than the rest of the house because this is where the heat was being generated.

Not quite.

Having just finished using duct tape in the basement bedroom’s ceiling vent, I went looking for possible areas in the basement’s duct work for gaps that I could seal. Not finding any I proceeded to walk into the furnace room to get to the work room when I felt the heat from the furnace. And what did I notice upon an inspection of the furnace was a gap coming from the main duct line meant to take the heated air from the furnace to the various parts of our home.

I don’t know if you can tell from the above picture, but there was a definite gap. Do you see the lower vent that already has duct tape where the vent meets the furnace? Look at the vent above that which has no such duct tape, especially the lower left corner.

 Here’s a close up of that vent with the gap. I could feel the heated air (when the furnace was operating) with my fingers leaving the furnace out through the gap and into the furnace room.

Geeze.

So, I proceeded to cut several long pieces of duct tape from the roll and apply it against the opening between the furnace and the main vent line.

Now, will I have noticed any difference in the heat in the various parts of the house? Unlikely. I would need some type of measuring device to measure the throughput (i.e. volume) of the heated air at any particular vent in any particular room in the house before and again after I had used the duct tape to seal up this leak at the furnace.

What I could feel, however, with my fingers was that no more heated air was escaping. And, later that same day and for every day since, the furnace room is no longer much warmer than other areas of the house. That in itself tells me that my heating utility bills should be less since more of the heated air is going to the rooms throughout the home, including the room containing the thermostat.

Notice any difference in the duct tape I used vs what was already on the lower part of the above pictures? Yes, the tape I used was not ’silvery’. Usually you are told to use the aluminum backed duct tape on ducts for a variety of reasons, including that the glue and the metalic duct tape won’t over time become separated due to the heat. I wanted to try to see for myself, hence the use of the non-metalic backed duct tape here and in yesterday’s article.

Once the duct tape has become sufficiently loose from the metal shaft, I’ll take some ‘after’ pictures, remove the tape and apply the metalic backed duct tape in its place, again with more pictures.

Remember, any home energy conservation idea in and by itself will likely make only a small dent in one’s home utility bills. However, it’s when numerous home energy conservation steps are done will the change be dramatic and save you lots and lots of money from significantly reduced home utility bills month after month after month after month. The more home energy conservation tips you employ the greater your savings will become month after month after month after month.