The heat you work so hard to pay for is escaping your home through air leaks. To find them, start by turning off all fans and exhausts. Then use a lit stick of incense to pass around the edges of doors and windows. Where the smoke wavers or is sucked out of the house indicates an air leak.
Hand Test
Air leaks around doors and windows are the most common cause of high energy bills. Air escaping from these cracks and crevices makes your home drafty, wastes energy and causes your heating and cooling system to work overtime. You can save money and make your house more comfortable by detecting and sealing these leaks.
This simple technique can be done with household items. To perform this test, hold your hand across the bottom edge of every door and window in your home. If you feel a cold breeze blowing into your hand, there is an air leak. The hand test works best on a cold day, and it only detects large leaks. For more precise leak detection, you can purchase a smoke pencil or Wizard Stick (a science toy that produces fog) and use it around doors and windows.
You can also perform a visual inspection of your home’s foundation, crawl spaces and attic areas for leaks, as well as checking around lighting fixtures, ductwork and electrical wiring. You can also purchase an inexpensive incense stick or a smoke pencil, and pass them over all potential leak sites. The incense or smoke will waver or be sucked in depending on the size and location of the leak. This is a good way to identify the most problematic leaks, but it can take a long time and will not locate all of your leaks.
Candle Test
Candles harden over time, so test results from early in the candles life tend to be misleading. It’s best to start testing a candle once it’s fully hardened, or at least after two weeks. This gives you a more accurate picture of how well or poorly the candle will perform when lit and helps reduce waste.
This type of test is also helpful in detecting large air leaks. You can depressurize your home by turning off the air conditioner and furnace, then passing a lighted candle around windows and doors. If the flame flickers or goes out, you have a leak in that area.
The key to successful candle testing is consistency. This means following the same procedures every time, and preparing your test candle in a way that will allow you to easily compare each burn. Using the same ingredients, fragrances, and wick size will help ensure your results are valid.
For the Candle Test, prepare the candle by placing it on a stable surface in a room that can hold the candle for four hours. Watch the wick and melted wax for signs of tunnelling, smoking and mushrooming. Observe the candle for the full four hour duration, recording notes as it burns. If you are seeing unusual behavior, retest the candle. It may just need to cure a bit longer.
Incense Stick Test
Air leaks reduce your home’s energy efficiency, and cost you money. Finding them can be tricky, but a few simple tests can help you find them and get your house back to optimal comfort. Use your hands, a candle, incense, or more advanced equipment to check for leaks around windows, wall outlets, and recessed lighting fixtures. These tests are especially helpful for finding hidden leaks.
Incense sticks are commonly used in homes, churches and temples to scent rooms, mask odors and repel mosquitoes, flies, and other pests. However, excessive incense stick burning can cause toxic indoor air pollutants to rise to hazardous levels in poorly ventilated rooms.
The goal of this study was to determine the particulate matter and carbon monoxide emission factors (EFs) for four different incense sticks using a Dylos Sensor. This on-line mass spectrometric method enabled us to track how these incense sticks influenced the indoor benzene concentration in the test room and provided results in less than one second.
To perform the incense stick test, choose a calm day and close all of your doors and windows. Turn off water heaters, furnaces, and any other combustible appliances that could create air movement inside your home. Light the incense stick and move it around your home near potential leaks to observe if it waivers or is drawn by a draft.
Paper Test
The chilly draft that sneaks under your door or the warm air escaping around your window frame may seem small, but they can significantly impact energy usage in your home. Fortunately, there are easy ways to track down these elusive leaks so they can be fixed before the onset of winter.
You can find the majority of your air leaks with a simple visual inspection of your home. It’s best to conduct this test on a windy day, with all combustion appliances and exhaust fans shut off. Use a lit candle or incense stick and hold it up to potential leaky areas like windows, doors, fireplace flues, electrical outlets, basement rim joists and attic hatches. If the smoke stream moves erratically, unwanted airflow is present in that area.
A paper tensile strength test is used to measure the force needed to break a strip of paper or linerboard in a perpendicular direction to the grain. This property provides insight into the quality of fiber bonding and length, while indicating the overall strength of the material. The tensile strength is reported in kPa units. There are several instruments available for performing this test, including the Bekk, Bendtsen and Sheffield test instrument types.
The paper test is also an easy and non-technical way to troubleshoot a kiln. Simply fold up strips of scrap paper and place them between the elements in your kiln. After 5 minutes, remove the paper and assess whether there are any issues. This method is an inexpensive alternative to using a multimeter, but it can only point in the general direction of an issue and cannot pinpoint the location.