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Cold house questions

dpbellus | Posted in Energy, Heating & Insulation on February 19, 2009 10:25am

I have a 1950’s ranch in northeast Ohio, it’s small, about 1200 sq ft.  About eight years ago we replaced all the windows, rewired, replaced the furnace, and insulated the walls.  I did all this because the old windows were all metal, some wouldn’t open, some wouldn’t close completely, some were bent, rusty or broken.  The walls had no insulation, and neither did the attic.  The house was sided with aluminum on furring strips over cedar lap siding.  The gap betweeen the wood and aluminum was a haven for yellow jackets, and i removed hundreds of palm-sized nests.  Most nests were old, some still had “tenants” i evicted.  The aluminum was beaten pretty bad and not worth saving.  The cedar siding was also beaten on, split, cut into, etc.; and I wanted different side windows in several places.

Given the situation and not a whole lot of money, I stripped the aluminum and scrapped it.  I blew insulation into the attic and the walls.  I used cellulose (I believe that’s the right term) from HomeDepot.  I blew it into the walls from the bottom and the top according to the recommendation so that it would pack into the stud bays, and put about a foot in the attic.  The attic has since settled and I think I need more.

During this project I also replaced all the windows and entry doors.  I used the Home Depot brand of vinyl window.  So far they’re not drafty and seem to be okay.

I also removed all of the cedar siding, housewrapped with Tyvek, and taped all the housewrap seams.  Then installed vinyl siding over that. 

To sum up, my walls are 2×4 construction, have 50’s era plasterboard interior walls, dense packed insulation, 3/4 pine exterior sheathing run horizontally, housewrap, and vinyl siding.  New windows, I know–not the best, but better than what was there.  After I did all this I noticed a significant improvement in heating and cooling(lower bills) and noise reduction.

My question is: Given the situation, is there anything else I can do to improve the insulation in my house?  Anything to help tighten things up?

I don’t think I can improve on the insulation in the walls, but I probably could add more in the attic.  I know vinyl isn’t exactly the finest siding material out there, and have thought about someday changing it if it would be worth it.  A friend has fiber cement siding with a layer of about 1′ foam between the siding and sheathing.  His house always seems warm in the winter.  I’ve also read about this type of construction in FHB, and I like the look of the siding.  I just wonder if the upgrade would be worth it?  Any suggestions appreciated.

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  1. USAnigel | Feb 20, 2009 12:06am | #1

    Any insulation in the floor or basement walls and floor?

    Have a blower door test done and fine all the air leaks.

    Where does the heater get its air supply from, same for the water heater.

    Door ways do they seal tight?

    So far you have done well and some more insulation will help but air flowing uncontrolled with cost you.

  2. cussnu2 | Feb 20, 2009 12:53am | #2

    One of my biggest air leaks were the outlets and switches and light boxes.  You can feel the air move through them.  I know people on here are going to disagree due to the heartache if you need to rewire but i went into all of them and closed them up with caulk.  Mine happen to be new blue boxes and the knockouts with the wire were the worst but i just loaded them up with caulk.  The knockouts not knocked out are still perforated but they only took a small dab on the finger to close.  then i caulked the box to the drywall.

     

    I know o I know just use the foam but the foam only forces the air to then come through the outlet itself and yes I know you can then plug the outlets with baby plugs but who wants to mess with taking those in and out each time and besides 90% of home plugs are ungrounded (my scientific study confirms 90%) so the ground plug hole is always open on those outlets.

    Anyway, worked for me.  Get a length of tubing and add it to the tip of the caulk gun it makes it easy to do and if you aren't going to shut off the power you should probably run a couple of wraps of electrical tape around the outlet sides to keep from getting bit by brushing the screws on the side.

    I used clear by the way but it doesn't much matter.

  3. pixburd | Feb 20, 2009 02:15am | #3

    dpbellus, do you have any recessed lights in your ceiling? They are tremendous leakers. Even surface mount lights and electrical boxes can leak. You could sweep away the cellulose around the fixtures, seal the leaks with canned spray foam, and then blow more cellulose over everything.



    Edited 2/19/2009 6:18 pm ET by Pixburd

  4. CJM | Feb 20, 2009 02:34am | #4

    Wow, you've done a lot of work!

    I used to live in Geauga county, lots of snow, are you near there?

    My HVAC system had quite a few leaks in the duct work. It made a big difference
    after taping and sealing everything I could access.

    1. ncproperties | Feb 20, 2009 03:37am | #5

      Not so much for warming the house but saving money, duct seal for sure cheapest easiest improvement possible.  Don't use that cement based #### sold at box stores. Spring for something like Cariles (spelling) hard-cast water based high velocity duct seal.

      Insulate duct work, water heater and hot water supply lines.

      Tell wife to put on a sweat shirt, that's what I do. 

      All bang for the buck items and not expensive on the scale of projects for saving money, especially the last one. 

  5. GaryGary | Feb 20, 2009 04:39am | #6

    Hi,
    Any idea how much your energy use went down in KWH or therms of gas?
    It would be interesting to know what kind of energy use reduction you got from all the good changes you made.

    I'd 2nd the sealing and insulating of the ducts -- if the ducts go through unconditioned spaces, you may be losing 30% of the heat from the furnace to leaks and not insulation:
    http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Conservation/conservation.htm#Ducts

    Sealing all the plumbing, wiring, ... penetrations from the living space walls into the attic might give a good payback. In many homes this is the largest source of air infiltration. You could combine this with adding more attic insulation. So, you would have to rake aside the existing loose fill, seal any penetrations, then rake the insulation back and add more loose fill -- hopefully cellulose.

    Check and see if your utility offers an audit program. Some of these include blower door tests, which would help to find infiltration sources.

    Bruce Harley's "Insulate and Weatherize" book is very good.

    Gary

    1. pixburd | Feb 21, 2009 12:11am | #9

      Any idea how much your energy use went down in KWH or therms of gas?What Justin said about sealing your attic "flooring" is the best. I had a 2000 sqft ranch with a few inch of rock wool and no wall insulation. That was not the bad part. I had 20 recessed lights which all acted as "chimneys." I had 2-3 in around my chimney which was open to the basement. Kitchen and bathroom soffits all were open. The wall between my two back-to-back tub/showers was open from bsmt to attic. I literally was pumping heat out my ceiling. No matter how hot the house was, we were never warm.I did insulate my walls and attic floor, but the biggest improvement was methodically sealing all the gaps, not little millimeter gaps but inches. My gas bill cut in half, at least, from $600 to $300 in Jan. The house was warm, and the house was quiet too. Then we moved.

  6. Clewless1 | Feb 20, 2009 05:44pm | #7

    If you ever work on the siding ... opportunity knocks ... answer the door and install 1+ inch insulation under it.

  7. FHB Editor
    JFink | Feb 20, 2009 11:35pm | #8

    dpbellus,

    I think most of the bases have been covered here. I agree with the consensus...you've done an admirable job improving the efficiency of your house.

    I wouldn't fret too much about the windows; they probably aren't the reason you can't get to the next level of efficiency. If you do replace the siding, that's the chance to add rigid foam to the sheathing, but to remove all of the siding, fur out the windows, then reinstall new siding - the payoff will likely not be very dramatic. Your focus at this point should be:

    1.) Your attic - don't add more insulation until you pull back what you have and thoroughly air seal everything. Look for big voids around chimneys, plumbing/ductwork chases, second floor partition walls, recessed lights, etc. Once sealed, add a bit more blown cellulose if desired.

    2.) Seal the snot out of your ductwork - as was mentioned, this can add up to about 30% of your wasted energy. Please don't use duct tape - mastic. If ducts run through unconditioned spaces, insulate them to at least R-7.

    3.) Move to your basement - insulate the rim joist, penetrations for exterior hose bibbs, wrap water pipes, etc.

    4.) Interior draft stopping will be the last stop - make sure all doors and windows are draft-free. If you don't use your fireplace, or only use it occasionally, consider getting a chimney balloon to seal it up tightly.

    Justin Fink - FHB Editorial

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