Insulating house

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.

Backwoods Savage

Minister of Fire
Feb 14, 2007
27,811
Michigan
I recall last summer when we put many dollars of insulation into our house along with new doors and windows. A neighbor told me I'd never notice any difference as it would still take the same amount of wood to heat it (actually more because of a small addition. Okay....

Fast forward to this morning. Last night it got down either to zero or very close. I got up late. My wife commented that I must have got up during the night to put more wood in the stove because she had done nothing and it was so warm in this house. Well, I did have to admit that I added wood to the stove somewhere around 11:00 pm as I did not go to bed until a bit after midnight. Still, I did not add any wood to the stove until a bit after 10:00 this morning. There was still unburned wood in there! So, the Fireview kept us warm for 11 hours and still going.

There is another thread going about getting your dry wood ready to burn because of some low overnight temperatures. The wood we are burning at present was cut during the winter of 2008-2009 and then was split and stacked in April of 2009. We at present are working on the wood for the year 2016-2017. This, I believe is the number one key to keeping warm in the winter. That is, good dry wood that Mother Nature has dried for you. Then, of course, comes the insulating of the house to keep the heat inside. So we have 3 things going for us: Great fuel, a fantastic stove and a well insulated house. Tis hard to beat.
 
The room my insert is in has a 12' high cathedral ceiling. This fall I had insulation blown in. The house was built in '59 and I think the existing insulation was a worn out R-7. The improvement wsa immediate and drastic. A very inexspensive way to improve your comfort. Ken
 
Not sure what your neighbor is smoking, but good insulation will make a huge difference, as you've seen.

-SF
 
A house is a sieve that leaks heat. The slower the rate of loss, the less heat that has to be generated to maintain temps. This is more of a green room topic though.
 
We upgraded our attic insulation in late winter last year. We had 3" of cellulose and we put 12" more. Last year any time our woodfurnace shut off, the house would drop quickly in temp. I would load at 10:00pm and wake at 5:00am with few coals and a cool house. Fast forward this year, last night was mid teens. I loaded the woodfurnace at 9:30 pm and opened the primary for 1/2 hour and set the thermostat to 72*. I woke up this morning at 7:00 am and the house was 69 with a good coal bed in the furnace. I'm very happy with the difference. It's hard to believe we are heating our whole home from a little 3.5 cu ft firebox. The airsealing and insulation in the attic was about 500 dollars and worth every penny. There's still alot of work, but I'm very happy.
 
Great to hear your results Dennis. I did the same this year - posted in another thread in this room about our subsidised insulation job, $3000 worth of blown in cellulose, foamboard and air sealing for $600. Oh and I went through a dozen cans of caulk and spray foam air sealing.


The results here are spectacular like yours. Much less temp differential between the stove room and the bedrooms. Rather than having to keep it at 76-78 I can keep it around 73 and keep the rest at 68+. The dec fuel bill and wood usage is about half of last year. and I can see Im reloading a lot less often.

Insulation is the gift that will keep on giving forever :)
 
I'm in the process of finishing off the attic into 2 rooms. It's still unheated but the big room (25 x12) has all its insulation up and most of the drywall. It stayed above freezing when it dropped to 2 last night. 30+ degrees over what it is outside is more than I can ask for for a place that is still leaking air. When its sealed up I bet it stays 35-40 over outside. There is a small room that has some open spots the wind gets in due to a bizarre way the electrical used to be held to the house. I can't wait to get that sealed up. I already blew insulation above the ceiling of that room to around r60. I'll be trying to not heat the upstairs. I figure the small amount of btus that is needed should radiate up through the floors or through the door going to the downstairs when it is open. Maybe I'll need to install a small electric heater for the real cold days.

Matt
 
The little one woke up so I decided to throw a few more splits on the fire that had only burnt half way. I don't know why I did that... I know better. Or I thought I did. Maybe I was asleep and not thinking clearly. So now I have 2 big box fans on high about 2 feet from the front of the stove.

And I went upstairs. It is 3 degrees outside and I'm at 37. There isn't any wind tonight whereas it was -16 wind chill last night.

Matt
 
Status
Not open for further replies.