How to Stop Drafts Around Electrical Outlets
According to the United States Department of Energy, 40 percent of the energy wasted in your home is lost through its exterior walls. One to four percent of that heat loss occurs around electrical outlets and switches mounted in outside walls. Heat loss occurs anytime that the insulation is broken, as it is around electrical boxes mounted in exterior wall spaces. Such heat loss can be eliminated using minimal expanding spray polyurethane foam. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- Non-contact voltage tester
- Flat blade screwdriver
- Phillips head screwdriver
- Pliers
- 2-inch wide masking tape
- Rubber gloves
- Razor blade knife
- Minimal expanding polyurethane spray insulating foam
Instructions
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Turn off the circuit breaker or unscrew the Edison base fuse protecting the receptacles or lighting outlets that you will be working on. Using the non-contact voltage checker, double check to make sure that the receptacles and/or switches are really "dead."
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Using the flat blade screwdriver, remove all the receptacle outlet cover plates and switch cover plates and check for a gap between the metal or plastic device box and the finished wall. Fill the gap around the box's outside edge with the spray foam, being careful to not allow any of the spray foam polyurethane insulation to enter the box's interior or to get on the receptacle or switch. (Good practice is to mask the box and device (receptacle or switch) off with wide masking tape.)
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Remove any wall-mounted lighting fixtures and fill the gaps around lighting outlet boxes with spray foam in the same manner as you did for the device boxes for receptacles and switches. Depending upon the fixture design, they may be held in place by screws or some form of nut(s)--use pliers to remove them from their mounting if necessary.
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Allow the spray polyurethane foam to set up for 24 hours, then trim it flush to the finished wall using the razor knife. Replace the switch cover plates and receptacle outlet cover plates, and remount the wall lighting fixtures.
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Turn the circuit breakers back on or replace the Edison base fuses during the 24-hour curing period if you need to use the receptacles, but use extreme caution when doing so because you can come into contact with energized, current carrying parts. DO NOT energize the circuit(s) with the cover plates off if there are small children or pets in your home. DO turn the circuit breakers back off or remove the Edison base fuse again before trimming the foam flush and replacing cover plates.
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Insulate power distribution panels/circuit breaker panels/Edison Base fuse panels mounted in outside walls in the same manner. Remove the panels' trim cover and fill the gap around the box with the expanding polyurethane spray foam. If the gap is greater than one inch, use spray urethane foam designed for gaps larger than one inch. As with receptacle and switch outlets, let the foam set up for 24 hours before trimming flush and replacing the panel trim.
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Tips & Warnings
Electricity is dangerous and can kill you. Using a non-contact voltage tester is essential to your safety. Using a neon tester or some other plug in type tester will only tell you if the receptacle is dead; there may be other live circuits passing through the same box--only the non-contact type tester will discover that fact. You don't need to deactivate those circuits but you do need to be aware of their presence and take proper precautions in case one of those conductors has damaged insulation.
Wear rubber or plastic gloves to keep the foam off your hands and fingers--it's extremely difficult to get off your skin.
