HELP: out-of-square door, weather stripping

[Zz Yzx]

'k, got my power bill for last month: $560.

Unacceptable.

I went to replace the weatherstripping on my metal entrace door. It's the kind with a saw kerf in the jamb.

Afterwards, I still see see a big gap in the lower thrid of the door. It's becasue the house has moved and the door jambs are not square.

Think 'simple shear': the rectangular door opening has been deformed a bit, so there's a 1/4" gap on the lower third of the latch side.

Any ideas as to how to properly weaher strip this door?

As always, thanks a heap,

-Zz

[Eric in North TX]

I only see 2 options, rehang the door straight, or build up the weatherstrip to match. I have a couple of places on my door metal door that didn't quite seal, & I shimmed the magnetic gasket with some plastic siding scraps behind it. The magnetic strips are replaceable, and I've already done that, it just need a little help. You may want to look at your bottom seal as well. Those are easy to come by at any big box store, I also added a door sweep on the inside for anything that got by the bottom seal. The magnetic seals are available online from Amazon, I've never seen them locally.

[ransley]

The door wont help much, if 560 is too much look elsewhere, start with cfls, not cooling it so much and all the other waste you have.

[ilbebauck]

You dont say where you are at, but, id guess the deep south where youre running the a/c alot . Its good you seal up your door but thats going to be a drop in the bucket in your bill (electric bill im assuming) . Your best solutions to reducing your electric bill in the summer are ; Maximum insulation in the attic then walls / ventilate the attic with a powered attic fan on its own thermostat / obtain a very high efficiency cooling system and one that is properly sized for your application and locale / cover windows to keep sun out / if your roof is coming up for replacement...consider a Metal roof to reduce the cooling load .

[Red Green]

" [e-mail]" wrote in news:2d37e748-97f6- [e-mail]:

I'm in the mid south and AC runs a lot. Old house and not insulated to a desirable level. Also old metal windows, 3 old patio doors but new entry doors. Then there's the complete 1yr old 13 SEER AC system, including ductwork. Electric bill very reasonable. I attribute that to new system, daytime setting of 78, single person exit/entry and rates of .075 (0-500 kWh) .0815 (500+ kWh).

From what I hear places like the northeast and other areas just wanna puke at the rates I just posted.

[Red Green]

Zz Yzx wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Where are you located? What are your electric rates? High bill(s) for what timeframe? What is your kWh usage during these high bills. Do you have AC? If so, what is the setting. If so, how old and what is the SEER? How many sq ft house? How many floors in the house? How many people? How many children? What kind of water heater? Are your neighbors seeing the same thing? Anything else that contributes.

In other words, for one place/situation it may be horrible bill and in others an expected bill.

[ilbebauck]

My electric rates in Florida are the same, but since i loaded the attic with batt insulation, its made the a/c run alot less and the ceiling temp. is greatly reduced inside.