{"id":9376,"date":"2013-02-20T09:04:56","date_gmt":"2013-02-20T09:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leedpoints.com\/?guid=bf732d944cf6fe7d3c086a0ad19419f3"},"modified":"2013-02-20T09:04:56","modified_gmt":"2013-02-20T09:04:56","slug":"air-leakage-at-electrical-switches-and-outlets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/air-leakage-at-electrical-switches-and-outlets\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Leakage at Electrical Switches and Outlets"},"content":{"rendered":null,"protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>Subtitle:&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n                    How I blew a gasket and exposed the hole in one air-sealing method         <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>Images:&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n                    <a href=\"http:\/\/www.greenbuildingadvisor.com\/blogs\/dept\/building-science\/air-leakage-electrical-switches-and-outlets\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.greenbuildingadvisor.com\/sites\/default\/files\/imagecache\/blog-river\/blower-door-test-of-gasketed-light-switch-energy-vanguard.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Blower door test of a gasketed light switch\" width=\"144\" height=\"193\"><\/a>        <\/div>\n<div>\n                    <a href=\"http:\/\/www.greenbuildingadvisor.com\/blogs\/dept\/building-science\/air-leakage-electrical-switches-and-outlets\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.greenbuildingadvisor.com\/sites\/default\/files\/imagecache\/blog-river\/air-leakage-electrical-junction-box-holes-energy-vanguard.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Holes in an electrical junction box\" width=\"144\" height=\"108\"><\/a>        <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> One thing that invariably surprises people when I walk them through a house during their first <span>blower-door test<\/span><span>Test used to determine a home&rsquo;s airtightness: a powerful fan is mounted in an exterior door opening and used to pressurize or depressurize the house. By measuring the force needed to maintain a certain pressure difference, a measure of the home&rsquo;s airtightness can be determined. Operating the blower door also exaggerates air leakage and permits a weatherization contractor to find and seal those leakage areas.<\/span> is how much air leaks in through the electrical switches and receptacles. On a recent Friday, we went out to do the last home energy rating in our latest <span>HERS<\/span><span>Index or scoring system for energy efficiency established by the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) that compares a given home to a Home Energy Rating System (HERS) Reference Home based on the 2006 International Energy Conservation Code. A home matching the reference home has a HERS Index of 100. The lower a home&rsquo;s HERS Index, the more energy efficient it is. A typical existing home has a HERS Index of 130; a net zero energy home has a HERS Index of 0. Older versions of the HERS index were based on a scale that was largely just the opposite in structure&#8211;a HERS rating of 100 represented a net zero energy home, while the reference home had a score of 80. There are issues that complicate converting old to new or new to old scores, but the basic formula is: New HERS index = (100 &#8211; Old HERS score) * 5.<\/span> rater class, and we got to see something even better. But first, let&#8217;s talk about that air leakage. We have a number of surprises waiting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8688,8689,4715,4721,8690,8691,5291,8692,8693,8694,8695],"class_list":["post-9376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-green-building-posts","tag-ada","tag-air-leak","tag-air-leakage","tag-air-sealing","tag-airtight-drywall-approach","tag-airtight-electrical-box","tag-blower-door","tag-electrical-box","tag-electrical-outlet","tag-electrical-receptacle","tag-electrical-switch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9376\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}