Sealing air leaks around sockets/switches

[2019]

I never knew those in the UK can't gasp the idea of heat lose through sockets, switches and light pendants! People mentioning about badly built homes! Every single house built before these new regs came into force would have heat lose through what I've mentioned above. Even places such as skirting boards ontop of screeded floors.

Just picture a dormer house in your head. One has conduit going up the wall into a void where the joists are, that area is a empty void. Along the void over to the outerside it, you would have insulation. Insulation is there to keep heat in but there is not one home that insulation would stop any draphts leaking through some small air gaps. There's only so much one can do with insulation.

Any air leaking from the house is money wasted through fuel because one has to burn more fuel to keep it upto temp!

 

[martin hill]

Hi There

The two balloons sounds like a good theroy but it working in a diffenet way. The ballon is having air forced into it. If you have large holes around sockets etc yes fill them but the trouble is with full airtightness is you lose the ability to expel moisture from the room. Scare mongering is all the rage now to make people spend spend spend. Your hard earned cash isn't leaking out your house. Its in the price you pay to the supplier. Be very careful when reading guide lines and research. Example. Nearly have exterior wall insulation done last year with k rend over the top. Did't happen due to cash flow etc. Now complaints of damp in homes due to moisture not being able to escape as wall can't breath.

 

[SFK]

All,
From my limited experience I have seen 'windy wall plates once'.

The house in question was a bungalow, was a newish build (1995) and had conduit pipes from the sockets/switches into the loft space.

Each of the conduit pipes extended about 10cm above the wallplate, (and the loft insulation) and into the loftspace. It did make for easy access to the cables.

The issue seemed to be that one side of the loft was well ventilated, the other less so, so there was a positive pressure when wind direction was correct.

This positive pressure then cased a wind to flow down the conduits, and around the sides of the sockets (presumably the air pressure then escaping around doors, through trickle vents, air ducts, etc.

It was not a big issue in any way, but small cold drafts could sometimes be felt, and when they were they felt uncomfortable.

Sorted with a small plugs of loft insulation around the wire in the end of the conduit where it come into the back box.

SFK