Special Friday Blog Series: Part 3

Friday, June 16th, 2017 by Joy Padgett

This is Part 3 of our Special Friday Blog series where we are defining and discussing some of the industry-specific lingo you may hear from the trained specialist who may come to your house to help you determine what can be done to give you control of your house.

Today we are going to take a look at “stack effect” and how this phenomenon affects our house.

First, let’s define “stack effect”. According to Wikipedia, stack effect is the movement of air into and out of buildings, chimneys, flue gas stacks, or other containers, resulting from air buoyancy. Buoyancy occurs due to a difference in indoor-to-outdoor air density resulting from temperature and moisture differences. 

Homes and buildings are never totally sealed, so stack effect will cause air infiltration. This simply means that the air you don’t want coming into your house is going to come into your house. In the winter, cold air will be coming into your house. In the summer, warm air will be coming into your house.  During heating seasons, warm air will rise up through your house and escape through windows, ventilation openings or unintentional holes, like ceiling fans and can lighting. This upward motion of warm air will then actually pull cold air into your home through lower level openings (think entry doors, first floor windows, etc). Think of it like this….air infiltration is like a thief breaking into your home. You wouldn’t be happy about that, so why are you happy knowing unwanted air is coming into your home?

The stack effect reverses during cooling season when warm air enters the home from above and cold air escapes from the bottom of the house.

So, what does this mean for you? Well, chances are, your house is doing this very thing. AND, if warm air is coming into your home when you are trying to keep your air cool, this can mean that your HVAC system is running much more often than it should which translates to higher utility bills than what you should be paying. PLUS, it means you probably aren’t as comfortable in your home as you should be. PLUS, it means your house is controlling YOU!

Now that you are totally unhappy with how your house is performing, let me break the good news to you…..Weatherization Plus can give you control of your house!