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Written by Marianne Peters   
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Friday, 30 October 2009

Caulk Is Cheap

Last week I was on my roof, industriously squeezing caulk along the vinyl siding on the upstairs dormer windows. October in Indiana – the red maples were aglow, the skies were deep blue, and it was not cold, but cool enough to need a jacket. Leaf rot scented the air.

I enjoy caulking. Not just because it’s a home repair I can actually do myself, but because I know it’s going to save us money and make us more comfortable this winter. Our home suffers from infiltration – what happens when cold air sneaks in and warmed air sneaks out. And what happens? Our rooms get cold and we pay more for the experience.

This fall I’ve been a house detective, wetting my index finger and feeling for a breeze along doorways, ductwork, and any other perceived nook or cranny. If I can plug them up, life will be cosier and less costly. Caulk is cheap, too – the real investment is the time you spend applying it, but it’s time well spent. We recently put in a newer, more efficient furnace, but if cold air is still getting through the cracks, I won’t reap the full benefits of that much bigger investment.

I never expected to enjoy caulking. When I was growing up, on beautiful October days, my father would climb up on a ladder, caulk gun in hand – not that I paid much attention. I was too busy leaping into leaf piles (that he had just raked). Caulking was a Dad Thing, like changing out the storm windows and fretting about the Cubs.

Another Dad Thing: monitoring the thermostat, something else I find strangely satisfying. My dad monitors his home’s thermostat as if he’s in Mission Control during a space shuttle launch, and woe to anyone who adjusts the temperature without a security clearance. Houston, we have a problem.

I know, of course, that Dad’s focused on the bottom line. Programmable thermostats save money. I set ours for 68 during the day, dropping down to 60 at night, for maximum energy and cost savings. During the winter, unless we’re going away for the weekend and want to turn it down, no one has to touch the thermostat – it’s a no-brainer. I just tell the kids what my dad told me: “If you’re cold, put on a sweater!”

By the way, in recent talks on home energy savings, I’ve taken non-scientific surveys and discovered that for the most part, adjusting the thermostat does seem to fall along gender lines. As in, the male of the species typically turns it down, while the female of the species has a tendency to turn it up. Conflict ensues and comes to a shaky resolution. Cycle repeats. Thus another upside to the programmable thermostat is that it could save your marriage...

I’m hoping to get a little more caulking in before the snow flies. Upon reflection, I know why I like to caulk. It’s quiet. I’m no longer multitasking, trying to rush kids hither and yon, or sitting in a meeting, or drawing a blank as the dinner hour approaches. I’m just filling up holes and letting my mind wander while the kids are off jumping in leaf piles (that I just raked). I get it now Dad!

Looking for advice on home repair? Ask your parents, or check out the U. S. Department of Energy’s handy Energy Savers Booklet: Tips on Saving Energy & Money at Home, available at www.eere.energy.gov.

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© First North American Rights, 2009. Reprinted with permission of owner.




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Green Facts

  • Americans use 100 million tin and steel cans every day.

  • If every U.S. household turned the thermostat down by 10 degrees for seven hours each night during the cold months, and seven hours each weekday, it would prevent nearly gas emissions.

  • Americans throw away more than 120 million cell phones each year, which contribute 60,000 tons of waste to landfills annually.

  • Rainforests are being cut down at the rate of 100 acres per minute.

  • Refrigerators built in 1975 used 4 times more energy than current models.

  • Current sea ice levels are at least 47% lower than they were in 1979.

  • For every 38,000 bills consumers pay online instead of by mail, 5,058 pounds of greenhouse gases are avoided and two tons of trees are preserved.

  • A tree that provides a home with shade from the sun can reduce the energy required to run the air conditioner and save an additional 200 to 2,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime.

  • Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every 3 months

  • Nudge your thermostat up two degrees in the summer and down two degrees in the winter to prevent 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

  • Bamboo absorbs 35% more carbon dioxide than equivalent stands of trees.

  • A laptop consumes five times less electricity than a desktop computer.

  • Less than 1% of electricity in the United States is generated from solar power.

  • Recycling for one year at Stanford University saved the equivalent of 33,913 trees and the need for 636 tons of iron ore, coal, and limestone.

  • The World Health Organization estimates that 2 million people die prematurely worldwide every year due to air pollution.

  • Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy used to make the material from scratch.

  • A steel mill using recycled scrap reduces related water pollution, air pollution, and mining wastes by about 70%.

  • One recycled aluminum can will save enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a TV for 2 hours.

  • A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.

  • Due to tiger poaching, habitat destruction, and other human-tiger conflicts, tigers now number around 3,200—a decrease in population by about 70% from 100 years ago.

  • In California homes, about 10% of energy usage is related to TVs, DVRs, cable and satellite boxes, and DVD players.

  • Glass can be recycled over and over again without ever wearing down.

  • 77% of people who commute to work by car drive alone.

  • Shaving 10 miles off of your weekly driving pattern can eliminate about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year.

  • States with bottle deposit laws have 35-40% less litter by volume.

  • An aluminum can that is thrown away instead of recycled will still be a can 500 years from now!

  • Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year.

  • You will save 100 pounds of carbon for each incandescent bulb that you replace with a compact fluorescent bulb (CFL), over the life of the bulb.

  • It takes 6,000,000 trees to make 1 year's worth of tissues for the world.

  • Recycling 100 million cell phones can save enough energy to power 18,500 homes in the U.S. for a year.

  • Recycling 1 million laptop computers can save the amount of energy used by 3,657 homes in the U.S. over the course of a year.

  • Every week about 20 species of plants and animals become extinct.

  • You’ll save two pounds of carbon for every 20 glass bottles that you recycle.

  • American workers spend an average of 47 hours per year commuting through rush hour traffic. This adds up to 23 billion gallons of gas wasted in traffic each year.

  • Washing your clothes in cold or warm instead of hot water saves 500 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, and drying your clothes on a clothesline six months out of the year would save another 700 pounds.

  • You will save 300 pounds of carbon dioxide for every 10,000 miles you drive if you always keep your car’s tires fully inflated.

  • In the United States, automobiles produce over 20 percent of total carbon emissions. Walk or bike and you'll save one pound of carbon for every mile you travel.

  • Turning off the tap when brushing your teeth can save as much as 10 gallons a day per person.

  • 82 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. come from burning fossil fuels.