Insulate, insulate, insulate

[Team Syntek]

Hey guys, I introduced myself in another thread but I am a 29 year old fairly new homeowner who took over an old colonial style house that was built in 1922....with not a DROP of insulation. My wife and I moved in early December 2010 and froze our asses off for a month....while bleeding our oil tank dry after only a month.

Long story short, I began in the attic around January 2011 laying 6" of R-19 in between the floor joists. I noticed that helped....but still wasnt enough. I went back around February and rolled out an extra 9" of R-30 rolls I believe it was. A combined amount of 15" and that made a HUUUUGE difference. Our oil heat was reduced by more than half...it is actually closer to 1/3 of the cost because the boiler only kicks on 1/3 of the frequency it used to. Insulation paid for itself in the first year! Nasty job but mucho important

Also, dont forget to insulate your crawlspace if you have one....that was the icing on the cake for us! Laid down a tough 5mil plastic covering the dirt...and 9" of R-30 covering all 4 walls.

[ProjectX]

Great work!

I insulated each wall socket, light switch and my hot water tank.

Stay warm, conserve energy & $$.

Originally Posted by Team Syntek

Hey guys, I introduced myself in another thread but I am a 29 year old fairly new homeowner who took over an old colonial style house that was built in 1922....with not a DROP of insulation. My wife and I moved in early December 2010 and froze our asses off for a month....while bleeding our oil tank dry after only a month.

Long story short, I began in the attic around January 2011 laying 6" of R-19 in between the floor joists. I noticed that helped....but still wasnt enough. I went back around February and rolled out an extra 9" of R-30 rolls I believe it was. A combined amount of 15" and that made a HUUUUGE difference. Our oil heat was reduced by more than half...it is actually closer to 1/3 of the cost because the boiler only kicks on 1/3 of the frequency it used to. Insulation paid for itself in the first year! Nasty job but mucho important

Also, dont forget to insulate your crawlspace if you have one....that was the icing on the cake for us! Laid down a tough 5mil plastic covering the dirt...and 9" of R-30 covering all 4 walls.

[Team Syntek]

Yes, I forgot about wrapping the water heater in an insulation blanket....we did that too!

My biggest problem is that the house is very old and the walls are thin, contains mortar and lathe and no real insulation....considering putting holes in the walls and insulating between the studs. Anyone have experience with this? Wondering if the time and money is worth it....

[rj.phila]

hey-re: the blow-in insulation. i just had this done over the summer-they did both the attic, kick walls, and all exterior walls. im in a 4200 sq ft home with steam radiator heat(expensive). i also put in brand new replacement windows in the entire 2nd and 3rd floor, and insulated the basement windows as best i could. this winter i'll see what kind of difference it makes.

my heating bills for the winter months of 2010/2011 were, in order- 450, 800, 950, 500, roughly speaking. as you can see, i need all the help i can get. while it was a mild november, my last gas bill was 100.

will know how much a difference it did in a few months.

[YLTL_Dan]

Originally Posted by rj.phila

my heating bills for the winter months of 2010/2011 were, in order- 450, 800, 950, 500, roughly speaking. as you can see, i need all the help i can get. while it was a mild november, my last gas bill was 100.

will know how much a difference it did in a few months.

Wow, that's brutal. I can definitely relate more to OP as my house in New Orleans is 110+ years old. Luckily we don't have to worry too much about cold winters, but we do have potential for high bills in the summer.

We had to replace our HVAC system and went with the high efficiency system. This made a huge difference by cutting the bills in more than half. Of course it will take at 8-10 years to pay for itself, but we had to replace them anyway because they had cracked heat exchangers. Another saver was checking all of the seals around the windows and doors.

This post might persuade me to climb into the attic and reinsulate...

[cptacek]

I replaced my back door this year (the old one, you could see sunlight around three sides, and it had a pet door that had 1/2 " cracks in it) and put plastic around my fireplace that was leaking air. I can tell a difference in that there are no more drafts, and hopefully I'll be able to see a huge difference in the heating bill.

[snafu]

Did I hear the summary correctly?

Rollback tax for income over $250K,

Eliminate all capital gains tax,

15% across the board Flat Tax for everyone

How will $14.5 Trillion debt be paid?

Eliminate Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac perhaps because of the millions he personally received from his company's Consultative Contract


Transfer 185 Social Programs to State operation and funding [you keep paying but off loaded to your particular State]

Finally...Mike George's 'Lean Six Sigma.' No one told the candidate the program works with limited success for manufacturing like Toyota but government doesn't produce 'widgets.' Services that would be the most obvious to target sounds downright silly. For example, the only people eligible for surgery would be those whose outcome was most probable to succeed. If you were smash up in an industrial accident you'd be left in the ditch! Military would only take on skirmishes when they had an extra ordinary advantage.

Any reports generated would be required to be implemented. The toll to drive on highways or bridges would need to be significant to make them user pay rather than taxpayer smoothed.

[cptacek]

um, wrong thread?

[Team Syntek]

Maybe it ties into Newt Gingrich having...lots of insulation?

[thefrugallery]

To save heat expenses I have a heated blanket on the bed. This allows me to keep the thermostat down a couple of degrees without being cold at night. During the day I open up all of the blinds to let the sun heat the house up. In the evenings, I might run a small space heater in our den since that is where we spend our time. This way the furnace doesn't have to warm up the entire house to 70 but we can still have the room where we spend more of our time in the warmth. I realize that these things use electricity, but I can't help but think it's cheaper than warming a 2000 sq. ft house.

The Frugallery