<h3>Cambridge Prevails in the First Round of the Air-Sealing Challenge</h3>
<img src="image/ES_airseal1.jpg" alt="" style="width: 300px; height: 200px;" /> 
<br /><br />
The Energy Busters, as the Cambridge Energy Smackdown team calls itself, won the Trial Round of the 2008 Air-Sealing Challenge.
<br /><br />
After only three hours of work, the Energy Busters reduced air infiltration by 650 CFM (cubic feet per minute ??“ a measure of how much air is blowing through the walls, doors, and ceiling when a large fan pull air out the front door).
<br /><br />
They chose a drafty house, identified the sealing opportunities and assembled a large team of volunteers to fill the cracks. It was a winning combination.
<br /><br />
???Our team worked fast and furiously and got a good result,??? said Audrey Schulman of the Cambridge team.
<br /><br />
By comparison, Team Arlington reduced air infiltration by 300 CFM and Team Medford by 50 CFM.
<br /><br />
"The small reduction in air infiltration in Medford was a bit of a surprise," said Kerry Koskinen of Byggmeister, Inc., which donated weatherization expertise for the challenge.
<br /><br />
"I think the team had some disadvantages. The biggest was a relatively small crew size. It was the morning after the ice storm and only a few people showed up. With air sealing, the more people on the job, the more cracks get sealed."
Air-sealing refers to stopping? the flow of heated or cooled air out of? a home and is a large component of weatherization -- the other component being insulation R-value.
<br /><br />
"If you can seal the ???building? envelope,??™ the? perimeter of a home that? separates indoors? conditions from outdoor conditions, you will? greatly reduce the amount of heating and cooling energy? needed," explained Koskinen.
<br /><br />
"Air sealing is not all that complicated once you know where the leaks are. It??™s gets down to having the right materials and taking the time to seal the leaks -- which is why the team with the most workers has an advantage."
And so it was with the Trial Round.
<br /><br />
Even then, the homeowners have noticed an improvement. 
"We've already seen two differences," said Joan Cyr of Team Medford. 
"A second floor closet door no longer rattles when it's windy outside. The wind used to blow through the attic crawl space and down through an opening into? a second floor? closet. And the pull down stairway to the attic crawl space doesn't leak cold air into the second floor hallway."
An insulating dome was installed in the attic.
<br /><br />
"While it may be true that we had the least change in CFM, our starting CFM was lower than Cambridge's ending CFM," said Cyr. "Besides, we were left with? some sealing materials, and lots of little pieces of blue tape identifying the leaks we've yet to seal. We'll be chipping away at these leaks overtime, and hopefully little-by-little, we'll notice a difference."
<br /><br />

<!-- 
<h3>Results of the Trial Round</h3>


            <table
 style="text-align: left; background-color: yellow; margin-left: 0px; width: 200px;"
 border="3" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
              <tbody>
                <tr>
                  <td
 style="color: black; background-color: rgb(255, 102, 102); width: 35px;">1st</td>
                  <td
 style="color: black; background-color: rgb(255, 102, 102); width: 75px;">Arlington
94,827 pts</td>
                  <td
 style="color: black; background-color: rgb(255, 102, 102); width: 90px;">Kayne
51,932 pts</td>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                  <td
 style="color: black; background-color: rgb(153, 153, 153); width: 35px;">2nd</td>
                  <td
 style="color: black; background-color: rgb(153, 153, 153); width: 75px;">Cambridge
49,939 pts</td>
                  <td
 style="color: black; background-color: rgb(153, 153, 153); width: 90px;">Klein-Botka
43,939 pts</td>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                  <td
 style="color: black; background-color: rgb(51, 102, 255); width: 35px;">3rd</td>
                  <td
 style="color: black; background-color: rgb(51, 102, 255); width: 75px;">Medford
45,725 pts</td>
                  <td
 style="color: black; background-color: rgb(51, 102, 255); width: 90px;">Hunt
32,859 pts</td>
                </tr>
              </tbody>
            </table>

-->





