August 21, 2024: All About Air Sealing: Residential Retrofits and Remodeling for Efficient & Healthy Homes
4:00 p.m. – 5:15 p.m. (Eastern) – Wednesday, August 21, 2024
This month’s moderator is the original session presenter: Colin McCullough, BPI Certified Home Energy Auditor, All-Around Home Performance, Farmingdale, ME
Welcome to our discussion forum series, The IAQ Club, modeled after the popular American institution, the community book club.
How it works:
When you register for an IAQ Club Session, not only will you get access to a video and/or audio presentation* from a past education event, you’ll also be able to attend an informal discussion forum** with the original presenter or other knowledgeable moderator. You’ll find the forums fun, informative, and personal. Each session encourages lively discussion of the scheduled topic (and sometimes other related issues!) Participants can ask moderators and each other questions about current projects and challenges. Each session ends with a fun, interactive trivia quiz. You might win a MIAQC hoodie or t-shirt!
*Like a book club, it is recommended, but not required, that you watch the video or listen to the audio prior to the discussion forum, as it is not shown during the forum itself.
**IAQ Club forums are held via Zoom.
Cost:
Participation in the IAQ Club is free for members in good standing (dues current) of the Maine Indoor Air Quality Council, and just $25 for nonmembers. All participants get advance access to the recorded education session, as well as entry into the live, discussion forum for that topic.
Advance registration for each monthly forum is required.
About this month’s featured presentation: “All About Air Sealing: Residential Retrofits and Remodeling for Efficient & Healthy Homes”
Air sealing is often overlooked and undervalued compared to insulation, but in many cases it is just as effective in making a house more efficient, healthy, and comfortable. Many homeowners don’t even know what air sealing is, but that has to change – we all need to be air sealing ambassadors.
In this presentation, we’ll go beyond the usual air sealing candidates of attic bypasses and dig into comprehensive air sealing, and find the targets that also have a great impact: blower-door-led air sealing, zone pressure diagnostics, effective interior window inserts, etc. We’ll also talk about the consequences of air sealing, why it’s important to know the impacts of making a house tighter in different zones. Finally, we’ll discuss air sealing a house to its limits: finding the threshold where mechanical ventilation is needed to keep a healthy and comfortable home.
Learning Goals:
- How critical blower door testing is to finding and prioritizing air leaks in the house
- How to effectively communicate to homeowners how much air leakage there is in their home and how cost-effective it is to address them
- Air sealing is an ongoing process, it is not a one-and-done solution
- Air sealing opportunities with windows: there are a number of very cost-effective solutions to making an old leaky window into a tight and efficient window without spending thousands to replace them
- Where the “fresh air” really comes from when people think that ‘a house needs to breathe’
- The most effective air sealing options for attic hatches, pull-down stairs, and recessed lights
This is an audio presentation (with PDF slide set) created at the IAQ & Energy Conference in October 2023.
Recording Length: One hour, including Q & A
Intended Audience: Architects, Contractors, Code Enforcement Officials, Residential Property Managers, Employers, Weatherization Professionals, Building Investigators, Homeowners, and anyone interested in preventing the spread of airborne infections in indoor spaces.
About the presenter (and this month’s Club session moderator): Colin McCullough, Home Energy Auditor & BPI Analyst, All-Around Home Performance, Farmingdale, ME
Colin McCullough is the owner of All-Around Home Performance, specializing in home energy audits, comprehensive air sealing, and home performance testing. Colin worked as a home energy auditor for years in the MassSave program and for Efficiency Maine as a quality assurance inspector, he is also a building science trainer/proctor for Build Green Maine. He is currently renovating his 1915 home in Farmingdale to be a high-efficiency, net-zero house.
Continuing Education Credits:
| BPI | Pending |
| AIHA | Self-Submit with Certificate of Attendance |
| Engineers | Self-Submit with Certificate of Attendance |
| USGBC | Self-Submit with Certificate of Attendance |
| BOC | Self-Submit with Certificate of Attendance |
| CEO | Approved for 1 CEU by the Maine State Code Enforcement Office |
Click here to register for the August 21, 2024 IAQ Club Discussion forum
