When you combine that with the.
Cold air coming from walls.
Cover your windows with thermal draperies.
The small air gaps around electrical boxes on exterior walls and ceilings leak more air than you might imagine.
Most people notice this in the winter when cold air blows through a wall outlet on an exterior wall.
Or in the summer when the hot 100 f air finds its way into your cool inside living space.
Department of energy s doe oak ridge national laboratory.
In fact a mere 1 8 in.
Cold air coming through cracks and crevices in a window will lower the temperature of a room and make your walls cold.
As that warmed air leaves the interior wall cold attic air moves into the cavity to take its place.
Gap around just six ceiling boxes is the equivalent of cutting a 4 in.
Where could it be coming from.
It s winter and your home is closed up tight to keep out the cold air but you still feel a draft.
With cold air inside the wall and warm air on each side in the house heat moves through the drywall which has a low r value and warms up the air in the cavity.
And on walls where there is no insulation or insufficient insulation cold air circulating inside the wall finds a perfect pathway into living.
The warm air then rises into the attic a process called the stack effect.
The reason for this is simple.
Even if a wall or ceiling is sufficiently insulated the insulation may have been cut away to make room for the electrical boxes which means these spots become conduits for cold air to pass through from the outside.
Hole in your ceiling.
You can expect higher heating and cooling bills if you have a lot of air infiltrating into your home.