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A House is a System
A house is a system. A house is a system. A house is a system. It's a fact. Things in a house work together and if you change one thing you're going to change something else. The trick is figuring out what else you changed. It goes back to the old song: there was an old lady who swallowed a fly. She swallows a spider to catch the fly. She swallows a bird to catch the spider. Etc. Etc. But I don't know why she swallowed the fly.
A leak in the basement might be caused by high intensity recessed lights in the kitchen that cause an ice damn on the roof when the snow melts from the heat loss and the water runs down the wall and through a crack in the basement wall.
If you heat your house or your hot water with an atmospheric combustion appliance where does the combustion air come from? Combustion systems need air and a difference in pressure between the area around the appliance in the chimney. If you work hard at reducing the drafts in the house, that's great, but it may be cutting off the air that is needed to drive the combustion gasses up the chimney. A furnace technician or an energy auditor can test the pressure in your flue and make sure the gasses are moving the right way - out!
And as homes get tighter and more energy efficient, the margin for error gets smaller and smaller even though the space may become more comfortable and cost less to keep it that way. Care and understanding is required.
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