How well is your home insulated or energy effecient? Here is a free Software where one can plug in v

[elkimmeg]

As part of the permitting process an energy compliance is required. By using this software one can calculate the value of insulation one's home. You can play around with this by adding different insulation values for walls, attic, and cellar ceiling or foundation.
If you have double glazed windows and do not know the u value, then use .50, storm windows and single glazed use .55. If you have modern windows say the last 5 years then use .37 Modern skylites .45 ,older ones . 55 Insulated doors r7 with glass, without glass R15. Basically R11 is most common for homes older than 5 to 25 years, newer 2/4 walls figure R13 andHigh density 2/4 walls R15.

One can also see the difference of applying a higher effecient heating and cooling systems as well boilers 15- 25 yeqars old 68% the rest check your effeciency rating tag that should be on your boiler.
You have to do a littler math to figure out your exposed walls and glass area, but this should be a very interesting project. One can compare what they have now and the difference once the replace old drafty windows or add insulation to your ceiling. Or in Eric's case the value of insulation the cellar ceiling use R11 R 13 R 19 or R25 R30.

Did you also know there is a higher density fiberglasss insulation, that will fit in a 2/8 bay R30 instead of needing normal 9" for R30 fiberglass insulation

(broken link removed)

Good luck: so you think your are energy effecient?? and see projected results. This should keep a lot of posters busy.
In Frank's case he can now compare his before blowing in insulation to the after effect. If having trouble running the program post back here so I can give more estimates of existing r-values

 

[roac]

Elk,

Looking at the web version it has a drop down list of codes to choose from. Which code should I choose for Idaho?

 

[elkimmeg]

IEC 2003 then choose Idaho: First find your floor sq footage ,then you will need the attic ceiling square footage, finally you need the exterior wall footage, and the glass area total footage. Like I said some math involved. You also should add in your burner effeciency, so you will have to know that. After all is inserted it calculates whether your home is code and energy compliant, At that point you can go back and substitute different R values of insulation and see its effect or better replacement windows. Sorry for not getting back earlier Bowling night

 

[roac]

No worries, I figured I should use the latest date but I wasn't sure why all the other dates. League night and you're home already?

 

[Rhone]

What I like about the program is that it tells you where you need to insulate. What I don't like is it doesn't tell me how many btu's I save by improving (I made an excel spreadsheet for that) and I found it's math to be a little off. I have UA scores 82, 79, 4, and 344 and it's telling me my total UA is 581. Maybe there's more going on but I count 509.

Anyway, confirmed my suspicions. I have R16 in my attic and should have around R50 but that's not my problem. That program shows I'm losing 16% of my heat through the attic, but 65% through my uninsulated floors over my unheated basement. I don't agree it's 65% but known my floor is the major loss considering there's been some occasions I can go into the basement and see a hint of my breath. My house had one thing built right, the plumbing. All pipes heating and otherwise are at least 12" away from any outside walls and all at the ceiling making it very difficult for them to freeze. There's only one 2' stretch where the hot & cold go to my kitchen sink that's in an outside wall.

 

[elkimmeg]

what I think is the program is focuscing where your deffeciencies are. Part of the equasion is not so much heat loss but cold air entering threw your floor. Which requires more heat to offset it. It is not perfect but a decent index where improvements can be made.
In MA. every permit requires a positive score before issuing a permit. What I do is check the actual R values and heat appliances from the perposed to the actual. Many times I have been able to force compliance to adjust the boiler or burner to meet higher effeciencies. Most of the time it means changing the burner nozzel or adjusting the electrode gap to obtain the effeciency it should. I have caught contractors pulling permits and taking energy credits for higher effeciency burners than what is installed, They substitute cheaper less effecient burners after the permit is pulled. I mean there are two suppliers most burners are bought from in my local area. After a while I get a real field sampling of where they should test out to be. This is where I take out my draft meter and test the draft. If it is close then I pass the installation. If it seems out of wack the draft meter results makes my point. I may be the only inspector that actually installs the draft meter probe in the exhaust stack. After a few failures word spreads quickly I am testing them. The fear that I may uncover fudged test results has made the actual testing more accurate. It cost a lot of money to buy a new more effecient boiler and install it replacing the cheaper less effecient one. I have been called a few names not printable on this forum after I failed a boiler for not being as effecient as it should be or fudged results are exposed.

 

[elkimmeg]

I really thought Brother Bret , Frank, Eric, and mathamatician Mo would get into this post. Not suprised that Rhom did