eskiles Loc: Palmer Alaska

1. How much does it cost to heat your house?
2. Is it possible to insulate your house so you lose (no) heat?
3. What do you heat your house with?
4. How many gallons of hot water do you send down the drain per day?
5. If you turned off your furnace at -40 degrees how long would it take for your house to reach freezing temperature of 32 degrees?
6. Do you own stocks in an oil company?
7. Do you believe it is possible to recover heat before it is lost?

eskiles Loc: Palmer Alaska

Aswers:

1. You pay for the ineffeciency of your insulation and recovery system.
2. Insulation alone does not stop heat flow! It only slows it down.
3. You may be shocked to know but we heat our houses not only with fuel oil, natural gas, every watt of electricity you use is a heat source( lights, refrigerator, television, in fact anything that uses electricity, The water you use to shower, even your body contributes heat). So when adding up your heat loss don't forget the other heat sources you pay for.
4. How many gallons you use, that heat is directy wasted after you send it down the drain.
5. I wouldnt try it but, that is the heat that flows through your insulation and this is why we continually renew the heat thus our fuel bill every year. This heat is forever lost to the environment.
6. Unless you own stock in oil, wasting heating money through inefficient insulation isn't my idea of a good investment.
7. Engineers have been recovering heat for centuries. It is possible to recover your heat before it is lost to the atmosphere and the energy you use to run the system adds to the total heat in the system.

I open this thread because I want the Hedgehogs to ask questions or add to the forum so we can help all to reduce the money we spend on heating and cooling!

phcaan Loc: Willow Springs, MO

Last year I blew in 18" of cellulose to the attic of our little farmhouse, it had about 3" before that.
We heat with wood from our land (40acres) and I have yet to cut down a healthy tree for this purpose. I have been able to cut all the wood we need from dead and storm damaged trees as well as just gathering up the branches and trees knocked down each winter by storms.
When we purchased this place in 2005 I stripped the interior walls down to the studs, repaired, insulated, and put up new sheet rock. We use propane for cooking and electricity for hot water. All in all we have been able to cut our energy expenses dramatically.
Our little 900sq ft home is comfortable and inexpensive to maintain.

richnash46 Loc: Texas

I'll bite....what are the solutions?

ole sarg Loc: south florida

Answer

Sweat in the summer and freeze in the winter!

Bangee5 Loc: Louisiana

I live in the south. I have a cooling problem not a heating problem

Lancer W/A Canon Loc: atlanta

And your stocks wouldn't be insulation factories ?

eskiles Loc: Palmer Alaska

In hot climates, If you have a house that isn't brick, carefully pull siding or use new, put 1x2 vertically outside the sheathing to create an air space open at top and bottom allowing airflow, install another layer of sheathing, reinstall siding. As the sun heats the air it will rise creating a convection flow. The hot air will vent from the top and draw cooler air at the bottom. This will effectively keep your walls cooler and lower your cooling costs. Make sure to install bug screen at top and bottom to keep bugs out. This could be used on the roof also!

In cold climates, The same process but at the bottom of the wall create a filtered duct that can pull air away from any auto exhaust or combustion vents as this air will be directed into your house, at the top of the wall use an insulated duct and direct the air into an HRV (Heat recovery ventilator) the air will capture any heat that escapes through your wall and your HRV will direct the partially heated air back into your home. You can also use this on your roof too. In any structure it is important to tighten your walls to eliminate direct air flow that will send conditioned air to the outside of the structure. But as you make the structure tighter you trap pollutants inside, Using the HRV will help bring fresh air in but the HRV won't address the heat that migrates through the wall unless you can redirect the heat into it. You may be aware of the cold roof system that keeps the snow from melting. The airflow removes the heat that would melt the snow, if you can collect the heat and redirect it back into the structure your heating bills will be lowered because you aren't losing it to the environment!

eskiles Loc: Palmer Alaska

You are fortunate to have the resources you do. What are the laws in MO pertaining to wood smoke? I know many states are cracking down on woodstoves. How much money did you pay for the added insulation and how long before you get a payback in energy savings? Insulation works fairley well but when does it become more expense to add insulation over the return on investment? Your house is 900 Sq Ft, pretty small footprint. Is your structure pretty airtight? How do you ventilate?

eskiles Loc: Palmer Alaska

Hi Sarge, I have lived in Louisiana and sweated, I now live in Alaska and while it is cold I love it. I subscribe to the theory that , You can put on more clothes to stay warm but you can only take off so many before you get arrested!!! :shock: :shock: I hope you get invested in this thread I value your insight.

phcaan Loc: Willow Springs, MO

.[/quote]

You are fortunate to have the resources you do. What are the laws in MO pertaining to wood smoke? I know many states are cracking down on woodstoves. How much money did you pay for the added insulation and how long before you get a payback in energy savings? Insulation works fairley well but when does it become more expense to add insulation over the return on investment? Your house is 900 Sq Ft, pretty small footprint. Is your structure pretty airtight? How do you ventilate?[/quote]

Yes we are fortunate, that was no accident we were very careful with our purchase. We realized that a house you can change but the real estate you can't.
Here in the Ozarks where we live it is quite rural and there is no regulation on wood stoves by the state or county.
The insulation cost me about $500 and I blew it in myself. As I understand it ceiling insulation is about the most bang you can get for your buck. As for payback time, I'm not sure. Before we insulated, in the summer the ceiling was hot to the touch and in the winter it was cold. Now there is no appreciable heat or cold emanating from the ceiling and the house is much more comfortable.
As far as the house being tight, it was built in the 30s and has been added onto several times since then. I replaced the windows and doors with modern energy efficient units and calked wherever I could.
It has been quite the adventure. When we first purchased the home the front door was paneled over on the inside, so there was a door on the outside but only a wall on the inside, don't ask me, I have no idea.
We have been here almost 8 years now and the house is now very nice inside and out. My wife and I are retired and we feel that we can live here very comfortably with the limited income we have.

ole sarg Loc: south florida

I was raised in Florida before air conditioning. When we were little my sister and me would get take our sheet wet it and then wring it out, turn on the fan and climb under the sheet. The fan would blow over the sheet and that was our air conditioning.

eskiles Loc: Palmer Alaska

Very ingenius, poor mans swamp cooler. As they say "necessity is the mother of invention".

eskiles Loc: Palmer Alaska

You are fortunate to have the resources you do. What are the laws in MO pertaining to wood smoke? I know many states are cracking down on woodstoves. How much money did you pay for the added insulation and how long before you get a payback in energy savings? Insulation works fairley well but when does it become more expense to add insulation over the return on investment? Your house is 900 Sq Ft, pretty small footprint. Is your structure pretty airtight? How do you ventilate?[/quote]

Yes we are fortunate, that was no accident we were very careful with our purchase. We realized that a house you can change but the real estate you can't.
Here in the Ozarks where we live it is quite rural and there is no regulation on wood stoves by the state or county.
The insulation cost me about $500 and I blew it in myself. As I understand it ceiling insulation is about the most bang you can get for your buck. As for payback time, I'm not sure. Before we insulated, in the summer the ceiling was hot to the touch and in the winter it was cold. Now there is no appreciable heat or cold emanating from the ceiling and the house is much more comfortable.
As far as the house being tight, it was built in the 30s and has been added onto several times since then. I replaced the windows and doors with modern energy efficient units and calked wherever I could.
It has been quite the adventure. When we first purchased the home the front door was paneled over on the inside, so there was a door on the outside but only a wall on the inside, don't ask me, I have no idea.
We have been here almost 8 years now and the house is now very nice inside and out. My wife and I are retired and we feel that we can live here very comfortably with the limited income we have.[/quote]

I know there must be ways to improve on insulation. I hope what I know and what the others on the Ugly Hedgehog know can be a forum to help us reduce the dependance on oil and help all to prosper throughout these trying times. There are many thoughtful people here.

ole sarg Loc: south florida

I lived in rural MO for awhile and what I did was cut some lath the size of the windows and then placed clear plastic drop cloth over the windows and tacked it in place using the lath. This created a barrier between the big plate glass windows and the outside air. My wife said it looked like hell, but it really cut the heating bill.