First time home owner questions

[gitmo234]

Hey everyone,

I bought my house in April and it appears I have close to the opposite of energy efficiency and I have some questions for those seasoned vets here on the boards.

First, my living room has cathedral ceilings and is about 1000 square feet.... strike 1

Second, I heat with forced air propane furnace and a rather inefficient fireplace insert.

I've went around and installed weather stripping/seals on my doors. Turns out all of them had massive gaps that you could sometimes see daylight from.

I went into my attic and crawl spaces too. First of all, I have a 2 car garage attached to the house and the attic above it in not insulated. There is no barrier between the insulated attic above the rest of the house and that attic. Insulation just stops about where the garage starts. The insulation is also spray insulation and not very deep. I'm probably facing a similar situation with the attic above my master bathroom. That place is about as warm as a tent in a snow storm. The whole house can be 70 degrees and it will be 55, with three vents pumping air into it.

I went into the crawl space and looked around. Most of the crawl space is about 4 or 5 foot high. Insulation is (in some parts) falling off the floor or all together missing. Lets say 10-15% of it is down or missing.

I'm wondering if it will do any good to insulate the attic above the garage, and double insulate the rest of the attic. Also, insulating the rest of the floor in the crawl space.

Second... what am I missing? What can I do to help this place be more heat/cooling effecient. I just had the thermostat set to 68, and in the blink of an eye after it kicked off (okay maybe an hour) it dropped to 66, and kicked back on to warm up again. So far, its 10 pm and my furnace has run 9 hours today.

Any ideas? I'm willing to spend a few grand. Is there some way I can find out where my major problems are? I have a feeling skylights and massive windows dont help too,

 

[Nic36]

Your living room is larger than my whole house! And, I only have 8 foot tall ceilings.

It sounds like it will take a lot to heat it, no matter how well insulated it may be. But, it sounds like you are on the right track. Just my 2 cents, and others will give you some good advice, but extra insulation in the attic would probably not hurt-especially in the missing places.

Can you close off some unused portions of the house?

 

[thinkxingu]

Gitmo, two easy steps:
1. Look up the program your state runs for energy efficiency. Almost every state has one, which will send out someone to test the whole house and provide recommendations on how to remedy the issues you've mentioned.
2. Fix the problems they identify, taking advantage of the incentives they offer and any tax rebates that might be available.

S

PS I'd definitely be looking at places to weatherstrip and install blown-in insulation. The former's practically free and the latter's fairly inexpensive. The materials to put 22" of blown-in insulation in my father's 2,500 sq. ft. house was somewhere around $400 and Lowe's loans out the machines free.

 

[dave11]

There's a great book about renovating older homes for energy efficiency. It's called "Insulate and Weatherize," though I can't recall the author. Should be easy to find online or at the library.

Based on what you've written, you need more input than you can get from a forum, and a certain amount of "conventional wisdom" is just plain wrong. But basically, you want to stop all air movement from your living areas up into the attic (called "air-sealing"), then add insulation to walls, floors, and ceilings to get reasonable R-values. Don't make the common mistake of piling huge amounts of insulation into the attic while leaving the walls and floors at R values of 1 or 2. The walls and floors are just as important as the ceiling.

 

[gpcollen1]

1 - Good advice in finding the program your utility runs for energy efficiency. They will do an energy audit and this is a great time to do it. They usually will do a pressurized test as well as using infrared temp guns or camera to find where the cold spots are. It may cost a few buck but 5000% worth it. Many folks are getting their walls filled with blow in these days too...

2 - Insulation needs to be present around all conditioned spaces whether they are floors in crawl spaces or walls or ceilings for attics. The Building Science site is a great store of information...

http://www.buildingscience.com/search?SearchableText=insulation

3 - Insulation is great but you need to watch for air flow too. All gaps and cracks need to be identified [in the energy audit hopefully] and filled with caulk or spray foam or other material. That can spray foam cannot be beat. I used a bunch to insulate some new door and window installations, the door and window foam that is minimally expanding, and it worked better than expected.

Good luck because you have the right idea...

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Unless you're heating the garage or the attic, I don't see how you are losing heat by having the garage attic uninsulated. Insulating attic and crawl space is one of the biggest bang for your buck efficiency things you can do.

 

[gitmo234]

From what I was told, attics are cold (knew this already), but if part of it is un insulated, there should be a barrier to limit the freezing air coming into the rest of the attic a little, esspecially if the rest of the attic isnt properly insulated. Aparently it makes the difference between losing heat really fast and just losing heat fast. My step father is a superintendent for a large midwestern construction company and came through my place like Holmes on Homes and freaked about that.

Also, my insulation is blown fiberglass and at most is 6 inches deep. In PA, we're supposed to have an R-49 factor, and from what I can read, it would have to be much, much deeper to meet that. For example, Not being able to see the rafters to walk on.

I went back into the back side of the attic yesterday, they're separated by the cathedral ceiling. I found about 25 square feet of cieling space where the cathredral ceiling rises on an angle that is entirely uninsulated. there was actually an extremely small crack that i could see the living room from, at an angle.

Then, there is another section that is maybe 20 square feet that is entirely uninsulated, and it's flat ceiling.

We currently have snow on the ground (and roof), and i've noticed that the top part of my roof, where the cathedral ceiling peaks, the snow has melted, almost in the shape of where the rafters arent, while the rest of the roof is still snow covered. I have a suspicion that the very top 3 feet or so of the cathedral isnt insulated at all, or very poorly.

Are forced air ducts supposed to be insulated? ie the Supply to the living areas? Also have to insulate my hot water line.

I'm loving all these projects as a first time home owner and long time tinker-er. I bought this home as a STEAL. At one time it was under contract for $500k, the seller decided to back out and stay longer, the market dropped, and I got it for about half that last year.

 

[JustWood]

I personalLEE woodn't have any type of program inspector in the house . I'd get an IR and check it myself or worst case hire a private contractor especialLEE in PA.

 

[gpcollen1]

I personalLEE woodn't have any type of program inspector in the house . I'd get an IR and check it myself or worst case hire a private contractor especialLEE in PA.

The Utility Programs DO hire a private contractor. You can even choose the contractor from a list here. The benefit of going through the Utility is the special rate, as they subsidize the cost.

 

[billb3]

Sounds like you have a long list f improvements to work on.

If you don't get a book or guide from the bookstore there's an awful ,lot of resources online starting with the insulation manufacturers.


If you're accessing the attic through a pull down door , they leak like seives. Either a blanket or one of those foam forms work great.

 

[gitmo234]

I recieved a quote from an energy audit proffesional for $400, including a home inspection like report. One benefit is my neighbor is a contractor who would do it at cost, but hanging insulation isnt a big deal. i'm enjoying the work.

My attic door is basically a painted piece of wall paneling about 1/4 of an inch thick. Today my closet (where the access for one side is) was about 40 degrees, while the rest of the hosue was 65 (my sleep setting).

Ive found some owens corning R-30 insulation from my local home depot for $12.50 a roll, and they offer a military discount, so I'll buy some of that, level out the blown fiberglass, lay the roll on top. If I really have the money and feel frisky, I'll then lay it crosswise.

 

[midwestcoast]

...Are forced air ducts supposed to be insulated? ie the Supply to the living areas? Also have to insulate my hot water line.

If the ducts run through an un-conditioned part of the house (attic or crawlspace) then yes. Be sure to seal all seams on as much of the ducting as possible before insulating. Use duct mastic from a tube or smear it on from a tub. You can also use aluminum foil tape but it's pricey. Consider anything sealed with regular "Duct Tape" as unsealed because that tape will dry up and fall off.

Sounds like you're on the right track: air-sealing the attic & crawlspace from the living space, then improving insulation in same. In your case also fixing up sealing & insulation btwn living space and garage.

Good books can also be found through the Fine Homebuilders website.

Another +1 for the energy audit through the utility. They can find some big issues not easily found by a layman without fancy gadgets.

 

[dave11]

From what I was told, attics are cold (knew this already), but if part of it is un insulated, there should be a barrier to limit the freezing air coming into the rest of the attic a little, esspecially if the rest of the attic isnt properly insulated. Aparently it makes the difference between losing heat really fast and just losing heat fast. My step father is a superintendent for a large midwestern construction company and came through my place like Holmes on Homes and freaked about that.

.

No, this isn't correct. At no time do you want to increase the temperature in any part of your attic in the winter. This leads to faster snow melt on your roof and ice forming dams at your gutters, and then roof deck damage from decay. You want ALL parts of your attic as close as possible to the outside temperature, both winter and summer. That's why attics are vented.

The correct solution is to properly insulate the living spaces. R49 in the ceiling is excessive, and poor use of your money, especially if the walls and floor aren't already insulated. The only people who gain from R49 are the people who make/sell insulation.

 

[pyper]

Definitely fix the problems in the crawlspace. That will make a pretty big difference. Heat radiates down just as easily as up.

 

[thinkxingu]

gitmo, you look up the programs in your area? You're spending money without seeing if the gov't'll give you some! In MA and NH, they'll send an auditor out for around $50 and reimburse 70% of what is identified and fixed. My buddy had 'em come out--he ended up throwin' 22" of insulation in the attic, replacing 4 windows, and having all his forced hot air ducts sealed and insulated for less than $500.

S

 

[Lighting Up]

I recieved a quote from an energy audit proffesional for $400, including a home inspection like report. One benefit is my neighbor is a contractor who would do it at cost, but hanging insulation isnt a big deal. i'm enjoying the work.

My attic door is basically a painted piece of wall paneling about 1/4 of an inch thick. Today my closet (where the access for one side is) was about 40 degrees, while the rest of the hosue was 65 (my sleep setting).

Ive found some owens corning R-30 insulation from my local home depot for $12.50 a roll, and they offer a military discount, so I'll buy some of that, level out the blown fiberglass, lay the roll on top. If I really have the money and feel frisky, I'll then lay it crosswise.

fyi, use unfaced insulation when laying over insulation in the attic
md