Insulation.
Going along with the efficiency theme, insulation has a lot
of uses. An older house such as this one has very little
original insulation. There is about five inches of insulation
in the attic. This is blown-in cellulose which runs somewhere
around R2.5-3.5 per inch to give R12.5-17.5. To get to my goal
of R60 in the attic would require at least 17 inches of blown
in cellulose insulation. The polyisocyanurate sheets (Tuff-R,
by Celotex is one brand available locally to me) are R14.5 for
a 1 7/8" thick 4'x8' sheet which goes for $21 at the local
"home in the box" store. R60 comes to about eight inches of
this stuff.
A compromise would be to use two thicknesses of the polyiso-
cyanurate for almost R30 and then top this off with 8-10"
of blown-in insulation.
The cellulose insulation is considerably cheaper, it is easier
to install (no cutting), it is environmentally friendly(made
of recycled newspaper) and mostly non-toxic (paper treated
with a fire retardant). Fiberglass is more expensive, it is
more toxic, less environmentally friendly, has about the same
R value per inch as the cellulose, but it will not compress
over time and the batts are easily removed to get to what is
below them, if that is necessary. Water will not damage the
fiberglass as quickly as it would the cellulose insulation.
The walls of this house have very little insulation in them,
also. There is basically none because insulation was not a
priority when the house was built. There was very little
incentive for previous owners to add the insulation because
fuel was cheap and the house is small.
To the previous owners' credit, they did add storm windows
and did seal the house very well against drafts. The landscaping
was well thought out to protect against wind from the North
and shade the house in the summer. The parts of the house that
were improved have insulation added, but it is no where near
the level of superinsulation I want to install.
There are dangers to installing more insulation. One of the
major considerations is that water vapor can get into the
insulation, freeze and keep building up as ice in the
insulation during the winter. This can ruin the insulation. It
can also melt in the spring, bringing the walls and ceiling
crashing down with the weight of the water.
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