Airsealing and insulation in attic paid off!

With our old woodfurnace before insulating and airsealing, when it was in the 30's we would load about half load for night which was around 3+ cu.ft. The house would get too hot overnight and halfway through the night the furnace would burn out. In the morning we would wake to a cold house and furnace. Late winter early spring this year, we airseasled our attic and added 12" of cellulose on top of the 3" that was there. With our new furnace, last night it was in the low 40's with a frost warning I added 1/2 load 1.5 cu ft of thinner Slabwood pieces, which would have been kindling for the old furnace. Closed the damper at 9:30pm. I woke up this morning at 6:30am to a 73 degree house, mid 30's outside. The kicker is the woodfurnace appeared out and hadn't ran for a couple of hours. I stirred the ashes with a poker and up came many live coals. I threw some more slabs on the coals and the fire took off. Its a huge difference. If I was able to get Slabwood cheap I'll consider it now. With the house holding heat longer and a more efficient furnace our wood usage has dropped quite a bit. I couldnt be any happier! It goes to show that a large old home doesn't have to be an energy hog. Of course 30's isn't cold by any means, but things were alot different before the energy upgrades. We don't have the swings in temps and we don't feel drafts. There's still some room for improvement so things will only get better.

Choking off infiltration makes a big difference. Congratulations. Now you have an energy saving system that never needs to be turned on or off. Works in summer and winter. Requires no maintenance and doesn't wear out. It is silent and makes the inside of the house quieter.

Well put.

And makes the house much more comfortable to live in. No more sweating in the evening & frezing in the morning. Less drafts on those cold blustery winter nights. Less work feeding the furnace.
Nice job.

Its been cooler outside lately. I'm finding myself tending the wood furnace very little. We woke up the other morning in the mid 20's and the house was 71* with a furnace that hadn't ran for a few hours. I stirred up the live coals, opened the damper and added some Slabwood within 25 minutes the house was 74*. I haven't loaded a full load yet. I'm still amazed. It would be nice to spray foam the sill in the basement, but thats out of the budget right now.

Awesome. It must feel great to feel the improvements because of your hard work. Over the past year or so I've been working on our house doing similar work.

I went through the gas/electric bill and made a spreadsheet of the electric and gas portions of the bill and then noted on it when I did certain improvements. They included a more efficient window air conditioner and attic insulation.

It was amazing the savings we have seen. Granted the weather conditions have varied, but over the winter months we have routinely saved over $100 a month in reduced heating alone. It will be interesting to see how the stove impacts the heating bill this year.

What major leaks did you find and fix?

There were 32 open cavities from the living space into the attic. All interior walls had them. Around the perimeter walls there was a 1" gap into the attic also that had to be sealed. In the basement we sealed the base of the interior walls where the stack effect was occurring, and we sealed all the ductwork with mastic and insulated most of it. There was the equivalent of a 6'+ diameter hole leaking out heated air.

So you are saying there was a "tiny" leak then? LOL.