Recently one of our employees embarked down the green road, attempting to take a glorified double wide with it’s fair share of holes and turn it into a more earth and money conscious abode. The end goal is to reduce our energy use, lowering the carbon footprint. Detailed below are some steps that are being undertaken on this path.
House:
1978 Interstate home with r-30 original attic insulation.
Assumed r-13 Wall Insulation
Location:
Park City, Summit County, Utah
Approximately 7,000 ft in elevation
Semi-Arid, High Desert environment
Methods of Upgrade:
Solar Panels — Insulation — Sealing Heat Ducts — Furnace Replacement — Little Things –
Solar panels are the most obvious and visible way of cutting energy use. These are easily the most expensive way also. There is hope though, and hopefully it will come to a community near you soon. The program we participated in was in conjunction with Community Solar of Summit County, a non-profit committed to making solar affordable and Alpenglow, the contractor selected to carry out the duties. In a nutshell, Community Solar contacts those in a community who are interested in installing solar on their roofs, pooling their interest and creating a bulk pricing situation. In the Summit County area, we had over 300 people apply to have their houses looked at. So far 60 people have passed the suitability standards and have committed to putting solar on their roofs. This group effort drives the cost of the panels down. Think Costco when you buy 50 pounds of rice and the unit price becomes much less. This would be like a company buying the 50 pounds of rice but delivering only the pound that you need, still at a reduced price.
Both of the organizations were helpful in town hall informational meetings and financing workshops. When Alpenglow showed up to install the panels, they stormed the project, finishing their end of things in one day. They were cordial and available to answer any of the curious questions we had about the install and the equipment. We’re now awaiting Rocky Mountain Power’s net meter that will start spinning the power backwards in the daytime. Essentially the panels create energy to supplant any usage in the home. When that load is exceeded the power is sent back to the grid. Any power we send back gets credited to our account, a bit like a bank account. So we’ll be banking energy now that we can use at night, or during the less lighted winter times.
This can be a relatively simple upgrade to your house, especially if you have an accessible attic. We have contracted to install an additional R-28 on top of our existing R-30 in the attic. The truck shows up, they run a big hose up to the attic and pump in cellulose to the required thickness. In and out they say. We’ll see how that goes.
We also contracted to install spray foam insulation between the garage and living space. There are countless resources telling you how much R-value you should have between these spaces. We settled on 2″ of spray foam (getting us R-15 or so) plus batt insulation below the spray foam for an extra R-15. The garage is not a conditioned space so it’s not ‘warm’ but it doesn’t reach the chilly temperatures that we can dip to in this area, so more than an R-30 is great but not super necessary. We also have an insulated garage door that’s sealed around the edges. That probably doesn’t help all that much but it’s comforting.
In order to install the new spray foam, a few things had to be tended to. First off, the old insulation had to be removed. You can have your contractors deal with this or save a few bucks and become closer with your significant other at the same time by removing it yourself. Fiberglass is not fun. Wear gloves, long sleeve shirts and masks to keep yourself from itching or breathing fibers. If you determine that you have asbestos in your home, call a professional to take care of it. During the course of removal, we learned a lot about our house.
What we learned:
In the Attic:
- Recessed lighting installed in a previous remodel forced displacement of cellulose in the attic. The people doing the work replaced cellulose with batt insulation (bad) and did a horrible job of laying it down (really bad). We may have been getting an R-15 in these spaces, where it was actually laid down in a proper manner. Most of it wasn’t however, so the effective insulation in the attic/ceiling was next to nothing where these recessed lights had been installed. The new cellulose will solve this issue.
In the Garage:
- Our ducts had holes all over them, causing the furnace to heat spaces that didn’t need it. This was evidenced by the dirty insulation at duct joints. The air escaping over time had caused the insulation to brown. This also happened along the exterior rim boards that where there other openings to the outside world. These openings will be filled when the spray foam insulation is installed, tightening up our envelope.
- Our previous insulation was installed wrong. The paper on papered batt insulation should face the warm side of the building, creating a vapor barrier that keeps the moisture inside the house and out of wall and floor cavities. It was installed up side down. This is probably a typical situation as it’s difficult to create a vapor barrier on the underside of a floor with batt insulation. You can paint it with a special paint and then insulate it. You can also spray foam it and this will give you a vapor barrier and superb insulation coverage. It’s a bit more on the cost side of things but is superior to other methods in this situation.
- Our previous insulation was insufficient. The batt insulation was R-19, which was not enough. The insulation around the ducting was jammed in and applied in a haphazard manner. Better than nothing but not that great.
- Mice like insulation. We found mouse poo concentrated in several areas, mostly around the ductwork, a warm cozy place for a mouse to hang out. More of a reason to wear the mask.
- Squirrels don’t like insulation as much but will fill cavities with pinecones instead. One cantilevered joist bay was completely jam packed with pinecones. It was a bit of a mystery as to what happened until we ran across the fella that managed this task. He/She was quickly disposed of.
When we had our energy audit, the auditor noted that many of our ducts were probably pumping out heat through little holes and bad joints and as much as you could it should be taken care of. When we pulled the drywall off to remove insulation in the garage, this became obvious. What we weren’t anticipating were the various other holes that came from poor installation and random accidents. Ducts were nailed to the joist, leaving a hole. An electrical Romex cord ran through a duct, creating two holes. Random holes from nails in the past were present. Corners of ducting were not closed off completely. Basically the duct system was spewing significant heat to nowhere that needed it. The answer: Air Duct Sealant. This stuff goes on thin but seals tight. With the bigger holes, a little mesh tape goes a long way. This will seal us up in the garage area, hopefully making a more efficient system.
In the living areas where it’s a bit more difficult getting to things when not in a major remodel, sealing around the ducts is a great help. Air going to the vent grille can leak out inbetween the duct and the grill. Putting a bead of caulk in this location will ensure that the hot air goes where it’s supposed to.
What about all the other ducting you can’t see? Well we are comforted by the fact that we fixed the garage problem and the other leaks are inside the conditioned envelope of the house so at least it’s heating the core of the house. There are other methods to sealing off your ducts from the inside of the ducting but the are expensive and for what we are doing it’s not worth considering.
Furnace Replacement
Little Things