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Increas your Home's Efficiency by Eliminating Air Exchange by

The majority of the population are living in homes who's energy efficiency is very poor and it is costing them money and hurting our environment. Over 21% of all the carbon dioxide pollution in the U.S. comes from energy used in homes. Most of that carbon dioxide is created by your local "dirty" electricity plant, in fact, your home is generally responsible for more co2 emissions than your car. There are many different things you can do to increase your homes efficiency to cut down your emissions and your monthly utility bill. One of the easiest and most effective things you can do to cut down on your energy bills and your emission, is you eliminate or drastically reduce air exchange. When a home is not propperly sealed it will experience air leaks (air exchange) which generally caluses heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer, and this is responsible for anywhere from 20% to 50% of your homes' heating and cooling cost. The cost and time associated with an air leak sealing project is very small andmost people will make that money back in savings in as little at 2 to 3 months.

This air leakage happens because of a preassure difference between he inside and outside of a home, because air naturally flows from positive to negative preassure conditions. In the winter the temperature is colder outside and when the preassure outside is higher than the inside of the house, cold air will leak into the lower levels of the house. The opposite happens in the summer as the warmer outside air is forced into the house because of the higher outside pressure. This preasure difference is caused by a variety of different things like wind, temperature and internal appliances. Even though there is very little you can do to balance internal and external pressure levels, you can seal your homes' leaks and stop the majority of this air exchange.

Door Leaks:

Door leaks are one of the largest contributors to air exchange if they are not propperly sealed. An exterior door with a 1/8" gap between the door and the threshold is equivalent to a two square inch hole in your wall. By simply eliminating these gaps with door sweeps and weatherstripping, you can potentially cut your your heating and cooling cost by 15%.

Window Leaks:

There are many different types of windows however, the majority fall into two categories, casement or hung windows and each type will need to be sealed differently. For hung windows, you will need to use a combination of V-channel in the gap between the sash and the jamb and foam striping between the horizontal sashes. For casement windows it is as simple as applying some self adhesive foam to the stop modling.

Electrical Outlet Leaks:

Electrical outlets are also responsible for quite a bit of air leakage. The easiest and most effective way to stop these leaks is to purchase some specialy made foam gasket inserts tailored for electrical outlets and light switches. To install these gaskets, you simply unscrew the face plates of the electrical outlets and switches, insert the gasket and replace the face plate.

Ceiling Penetration Leaks:

Most homes have unconditioned atic spaces which will typically be closer to the temperature outside than the temperature inside. Therefore any gaps between the conditioned living spaces and unconditioned attic spaces will result in air exchange and cause your home to be less efficient. Most ceiling gaps and leaks are easier to take care of from the attic as you do not have to be as clean with your sealing methods. In general most ceiling leaks can be taken care of by an acrylic caulk and/or self adhesive expanding foam strips at attic oppenings.

Baseboard And Wall Penetration Leaks:

Except for plumbing penetrations, baseboards and wall penetrations are all handled the same way with acrylic caulk. Because plumbing penetrations are generally located in unseen areas, they can be filled with preasurized expanding foam relatively easy. Caulk will be used to fill all other wall penetration edges and baseboards, and since these areas will be seen frequently, they will require a little more patience and finess.

Interior Caulking:

Contrary to popular belief, a propper caulking bead is not run by pulling the caulk gun away from the bead. Instead, the caulk gun should be held at a 45 degree angle off of the surface and pushed towards the bead. This way the caulk gets pushed into the cracks and the bottom edge of the caulk nipple actually created a smooth finished edge if the propper amount of caulk is released.

An interior caulking job will require that you caulk all edges of all wall penetrations. This includes doors, windows, baseboards, wall and window mounted AC units, vents and any other penetrations not listed. Once this is completed you will have achived a sealed home which also brings up a small issue.

Carbon Monoxide warning: During and/or after completeion of a home sealing job, you are at risk of carbon monoxide poisoning and/or combustion. This is because the gases have no where to escape as they did before. Therefore, it is imperative that you buy and mount Carbon Monoxide detectors throughout the house to ensure the safety of you and your family.

Exterior Caulking

Even though your home is sealed from the inside, it is a good idea to seal the exterior of you home as well. This will help reduce air, dirt and moisture entry into your home, resulting in lower energy cost. Caulk should be applied to the following areas:

-joints where two materials meet
-around door and window frames
-joints between eaves and gable molding
-joints between window sill and siding
-All inside corners

Should you come across a joint larger than 1/8" you will need to use a backer rod to ensure proper adhesion and plyability. Contrary to popular belief, more caulk is not always better, in fact in most cases its actually worse. If huge amounts of caulk are applied to gaps larger than 1/8" the majority of the caulk will adhere to the back material and when the caulk shrinks or walls settle the caulk will crack and break its seal. If a backer rod is placed in the gap before applying the caulk, the caulk will take on an hour glass shape in section and will not adhere to the backer rod. This shape allows the caulk to stretch and move with the walls as they settle and move.

Now that you have finished sealing up all of your air leaks, pat yourself on the back becuase you just increased your efficiency by 20% to 50%. That not only translate into money savings, but your carbon footprint has also been reduced by 6,500 lbs. to 16,000 lbs. per year.

Adam Beazley
Neutral Existence
Now if you don't want to waste money sealing spots that are already sealed, then find out how to do your own preassurization test / energy audit to locate any air leaks.

Article Source: http://www.earticlesonline.com/Article/Increas-your-Home-s-Efficiency-by-Eliminating-Air-Exchange/172085

Chemistry .. How many atoms fit across ...?

I need help with figuring out this problem ... will someone please help me in the steps to figuring it out ...
The area of an head of an ave. flat head straight pin is 3.5 x 10^-4 in^2. The atomis radius for the element xenon is 131 pm. If you could line up a row of atoms, how many xenon atoms could fit across the diameter of the head of a straight pin. Note: Imagine a row of atoms (like a string of beads) stretched across the diameter of the pin. How many atoms will fit?

My calculations is the diameter of the pin is 5.4 x 10^-2 cm. I am pretty sure the diameter of xenon is 2.67 x 10^-8 cm. What do I do from here?

Thanks

start with the pin..

area = pi x r^2 = pi x (d/2)^2 = pi x d^2 / 4

so therefore...

d = (4 x area/pi)^.5 = (4 x 3.5 x 10^-4 in^2 / 3.14)^.5 = .021115 in (which does = 5.4 x 10^-2 cm fyi)

next, the radius of the zenon atom is 131 pm = 131 x 10^-12 meters. so the diameter is 2 x that = 262 x 10^-12 m

now then we need to set up the conversions. here's the answer. I'll explain in a sec....

.021115 in x (2.54 cm / 1 in) x (1 m / 100 cm) x ( 1 atom / 262 x 10^-12 m) = 2.05 x 10^6 atoms...

***********************************

the easiest way to setup the equation above is like this...
and you can use this for all unit conversions during your high school and college science classes, this is called unit factor method.

idea is this...
1) any number x 1 = that number
2) units on the top and bottom of a fraction cancel just like numbers do.
3) equalities can be made to equal 1 by dividing both sides by one side.....example....
2.54 cm = 1 in -----> 2.54 cm/ 2.54cm = 1 in/2.54cm ---->
1 = 1 in/2.54cm
4) for cubes (etc) cube both sides of 1 = 1 in/2.54cm
1^3 = 1 = (1 in/2.54cm)^3
so here's how it works. you know an equality and make a ratio out of it. make the power whatever you need. then set up an equation like....

to convert cm to inches.

10 cm = 10 cm x 1 = 10 cm x (1 in/2.54cm)
note cm's cancel and your left with... 10 cm = 3.94 in

to convert say 100 ml to m^3.....

100 ml = 100 ml x (1 cm^3 / ml ) x (1 m / 100cm )^3 = .0001 m^3.... ml, cm have canceled.

same thing for your problem.....