If you live in a house with an attic, you may be losing energy to a drafty hatch. A helpful DIYer on YouTube has an easy and cheap way to make your home more energy-efficient.
The scoop
GIYGreenItYourself (@GIYGreenItYourself) is a YouTube channel dedicated to making your home more energy-efficient. Most of their videos are easy tips for weatherizing your home. In one clip, they share a simple and affordable way to seal gaps in your attic door.
This clip focuses on a "manhole" style attic hatch that resembles a ceiling panel that simply lifts up for access. Depending on your attic door style you may have to modify this hack. GIY indicates the easiest way to seal your hatch is using foam tape: "Make sure you've given it a good clean; otherwise, the tape won't stick." There are many sizes of foam tape you can use for this and other tasks, so you should be able to find one that fits your drafty door.
In the video, they say, "You'd be hard-pressed to spend more than 10 bucks on this job. … Ten bucks, 10 minutes." It's hard to argue with that.
How it's working
Affordable and easy tips like this are a great way to make your home more energy-efficient. Weatherizing your home can be one of the best ways to keep your home cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Our guide explains, "You'll cut almost $300 a year on energy costs and can save even more with weatherization tax credits."
The EPA and Energy Star have worked together to make it easier to insulate your home with tax credits and other incentives. They also estimate that "homeowners can save an average of 15% on heating and cooling costs … by air sealing their homes and adding insulation in attics, floors over crawl spaces and basements."
While this tip is only sealing a very small portion of your home, it's just one step in the process toward a more energy-efficient home.
What people are saying
Commenters were thrilled to learn about this easy tip. One person wrote, "Great video on an easy-to-do, yet often neglected, attic door seal that can make more of a difference than many people realize."
Another commenter said, "Great idea, I will do this myself!"
Finally, someone added, "You also have to insulate the panel itself, using hard cell [insulation]."
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