There are simple energy fixes for your home that you can do while staying at home for a few days. I do lots of energy audits and the most common challenge I find in almost every house is air leakage around and thru While each of these is a small hole in your thermal envelope, there are a lot of these small holes. Here is a thermal image of a typical outlet. In this image, white is warm and dark is cold air. This is an outlet in an exterior wall, but I also find this on interior walls.
You can see cold air coming around the decorative cover plate and through the outlets themselves.
It is easy to take the decorative plate off. Don’t touch the wires inside. You will want to use a silicone caulk to fix the gap. There is a plastic box that holds the outlet in place. The gap between the plastic box and the drywall / plaster is the leak. Simply fill the gap with caulk.
So this reduces the air flow but does not stop it completely. If you have any child protection plugs you can insert them into the outlets after reattaching the decorative plate. You can also order a pack of pre-cut insulation that is designed to go behind the decorative plate.
Once sealed, this hole in your drywall is no longer a source of air leaking into and out of your home. This will improve your indoor air quality and potentially reduce your monthly energy bills.
I created some coloring pages years ago and it seems also a logo ago for some events we were hosting. Here are some links to free architectural coloring books that you can download. I will post some more architectural activities for home schooling in the coming days. Hope it helps bring some fun and laughter to your home.
This event is in the Depot’s 2nd floor gallery located at 141 W. Bruce St., Harrisonburg, VA. Artwork will remain on exhibit through the month.
Jordan Mitchell is an artist who works primarily in watercolor, ink & charcoal. She was born and raised in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and graduated with a B.S. in Communications from Bridgewater College in Bridgewater, Virginia. Her floral, feminine and typographic pieces are inspired by the colorful works of artists such as Georgia O’Keefe and Ed Rusha. She attributes her passion for creating joyful works to (very) patient public school art teachers and the creative genius that is her younger brother, Noah Mitchell of Atom Shine Comics. Jordan currently lives and works in downtown Harrisonburg where she enjoys painting, relaxing with friends, and frequenting the areas great restaurants.
March 6, 2020
5pm – 8pm
Gaines Group Architects
141 W. Bruce St. Harrisonburg, VA
Second Floor
More of her paintings and designs can be found @jordan_mitchell_art on Instagram, any and all inquiries can be directed to jordanmitchell.paint@gmail.com
My goal in providing free energy audits has been to help people make their homes more comfortable, energy-efficient, and durable.
In 2016, I started offering free energy audits for anyone in the valley. I worked with HEC on those in the city of Harrisonburg to start with and on my own for those in the County. I wanted to help people understand their homes and businesses – the most complicated machines they will ever own. With the knowledge of how these machines run, these home and business owners (and many churches) could make changes to improve comfort, reduce energy, clean up indoor air quality, and make their homes more durable.
This morning I performed one of the last audits I will be able to do for some time – there’s just not time to run for office (www.hendricksforharrisonburg.com) and provide this service while being a single dad and business owner. Here are blog links that I hope will help you improve comfort and energy-efficiency without a full audit.
Preservation of our historic structures is important for the health of our Harrisonburg community. Just a few years ago the area to the west of Rt. 11 near Bruce St. was dark, abandoned, and had frequent graffiti outbreaks.
Then Matchbox Properties renovated the building where Food Bar Food, Blueline Construction, and The Hub exists now starting a revitalization. Then the Ice House came back to life with JMU, restaurants, Hugo Kohl Jewelry, Black Sheep, and Pale Fire Brewing moving in. Finally our building, The Depot, was renovated. Now this corner of downtown is vibrant, landscaped, and active on a daily basis. This is an example of how you can use existing buildings to activate a space.
The Denton Building is an important part of activating Court Square. Larkin Arts brings foot traffic to this corner of downtown on a daily basis. Street activity builds community. There are also apartments above Larkin Arts providing housing options to those wanting to live in the city core.
I believe Harrisonburg made a mistake as a community when multiple buildings in downtown were demolished to build the courts building and jail. This was an active business community at the time and if those buildings existed today would not only be providing tax revenue for our city budget, but would also create a place for business to thrive. The courts and jail complex buildings are specifically designed to reduce activity on the street outside of them, closing off their walls due to their function.
Taking down the Denton building will grow this dead spot in downtown and hurt Harrisonburg. It not only hurts by taking a thriving building off the tax roll, but also takes away apartments and retail spaces that are creating part of the city we love.
In the coming days the building next to First Presbyterian Church will come down to create a pocket park. That sounds great, but it will not be a public pocket park, it will be a mostly private park for the church. It is good to have some green space in downtown, but we need spaces that build inclusive community. A functional building in this location would bring business and possibly residential opportunities that are needed. This building is coming down due to lack maintenance over the years to a point where it could no longer be saved. This should not be the path to taking down a historic structure. There should be limitations to building owners city wide that would not allow them to use neglect to demolish a building.
I am not against taking down all buildings. Some buildings do not meet the standard of historic and do not add to the historical fabric of our place. This should be a community conversation about which buildings are important to save and which buildings could be replaced for a higher and better use. We are working on a project at the corner of S. Federal St. and East Market St. where we plan to demolish the existing one story building. The building does not have historical character.
