Well that explains a lot

[tcepsa]

I just got done having a home energy inspection. We have determined that while my heating and cooling hardware is in reasonably good shape, the thing that I live in isn't actually a house; it's a sieve.

This is actually both good and bad. The bad is, of course, that I'm using quite a lot more energy than I need to use to heat this place in the wintertime (and why I'm still cold regardless). The good news is that due to the scale we're talking about here the first couple of fixes should have a huge return on investment ^_^

Comments

[blushing-grace.livejournal.com]

Fixes like what? More insulation? New windows?

[tcepsa.livejournal.com]

Actually the windows were one of the least problematic places (except for the ones in the basement, which I suspect are original). More insulation, and probably something (like the hard pink insulation) to help create more of an air-barrier. Right now it's just basically loose insulation up in the attic, which it turns out apparently if there's much of a pressure differential between inside the house and out the air will go right through it. If I understood them correctly, the inspectors' words were along the lines of "Right now you basically have a good filter in your attic, but not a particularly significant amount of insulation. You need to try to modify it so that you won't be able to have as much airflow through it."

So yeah, overhauling the top floor's insulation both in the attic and along the eaves is the primary concern, followed by some sort of treatment for the basement windows and weatherstripping for the doors. They'll be sending me a detailed report of their findings in a couple of weeks, and I'll be going from there.

[janeoftrades.livejournal.com]

Weather stripping? Caulking? Insulation?

Do tell! *grin*

(Oh, and let us know if you'd like any help, we could likely manage a weekend visit (and yes, the car is finally in decent shape so we won't get stranded again *smirk*).)

[tcepsa.livejournal.com]

Mostly insulation and weatherstripping as the two main concerns (see response above).

Not sure about tackling this on my own; the information that they gave me was great, but at the same time I'm starting to have the realization that when it comes to my house I might prefer that folks with more experience than me handle the management and execution (which isn't to say that I wouldn't want your help if you're interested in doing the project and could use me as a grunt, but that I don't feel like I'd be particularly good at saying "Okay, first I need you to do this while we do this, and then you do that and I'll do this and you do this other thing, etc.") In other words, for the major stuff like the upstairs insulation overhaul, I'll be giving some serious consideration to contracting it out (another benefit of the company that I went with for the inspection is that they have a network of contractors they, and previous customers, feel are very good at doing these things and they'll make recommendations for the different subprojects so that hopefully I won't end up with another contractor like the one that did my roof and siding).

On the other hand, there are also plenty of less-functionally-critical projects that I feel much less nervous about taking on myself, such as repainting, or drywalling the basement ceiling, and odds are much higher that I will ping you about help with those ^_^

[janeoftrades.livejournal.com]

*nod* This seems reasonable. I haven't done insulation before, but the vac has, and I've watched it done before. The big trick is basically to get the stuff with backing, wear protective clothing, and get a nice staple gun. It's quite simple, just tedious. But really, with insulating, you'll mostly be paying for materials with a contractor, there's not a lot of labor involved, so it might be easier (and faster) to do it with a contractor, especially with the awkward spaces you're looking at doing. Weatherstripping is pretty darn simple, I've done some, the vac has, and Mom has as well. *shrug* Depends on how much you'd prefer do-it-yourself over contracting out, really.

The vac says: or, at least for insulation and weatherstripping, you could pay us gas money and we could do it.
(I agree. It won't look uber gorgeous or anything, but insulation doesn't, and we'd do it without damaging anything or doing it very poorly. We have insulation on much easier spaces to do at this house and I could easily put up a roll or so for practice before we headed out to do yours, if you like. (Managed to find a ridiculous deal on a miss-order for insulation so we have a ton to put up that likely still won't cover all of our attic roof line.))

*hug*
Good luck!