Aerosol Sealing of Existing Attics and Crawlspaces

Retrofit air sealing of homes provides a significant opportunity for reducing residential energy use. According to results published on the impact of retrofit air sealing in single-family homes in California, reducing envelope leakage by 50% would result in 7-15% reduction in heating and cooling energy use. This project developed and tested new applications of aerosol envelope sealing that allows the process to be applied to existing occupied homes. The new method avoids issues related to unwanted deposition of sealant particles on finished surfaces in the home by applying the technology from the outside of home in a ventilated attic or crawlspace. This project found that the aerosol sealing process was much more effective at sealing envelope leakage compared to traditional methods. Across 13 demonstrations, the aerosol sealing process sealed an average of 40% of the existing home leakage compared to just 14% sealed using the common manual sealing approach.