|
We're settling into a home built between 1920 and 1954 in several phases. When we moved in it was a thin-skinned heat loss nightmare, but despite a lot of work, we still have a long way to go. So far we replaced the electric baseboards with a 91% efficient boiler and tankless hot water heater with a mixture of hot water baseboards and kick heaters (blower through radiator coils). We've replaced the worst door and window, but still have about a dozen single-pane windows to replace and one more door. We had 1.5" of vermiculite and 5-6" of very compacted fiberglass in the attic, but had R60 fiberglass blown in. Now we're building an insulated wall in the garage to separate the car portion from storage and hold more heat under the house, where it's currently leaking out the ancient garage doors. Someday we'll replace the garage doors with insulated ones, but at $1,200 a piece, the wall, at just $450 was a much better way to seal off the are under the house (most of the space over the garage/basement is deck, only a small portion is under the house).
It's a labor of love as we watch the transition. Last month was $69 combined, gas and electric and I expect the colder months will work the bills into the $150 range until we can replace the windows and insulate the walls in one room (all are insulated but one room that was either the first or last piece built). I suspect we'll get it to about $100 a month with those steps, but at a annual high of 250kwh, I think doing solar would be reasonably cheap. Also, we're considering adding a wood stove, which would all but eliminate our need for heat. We'll see; the last six months have been a mix of planned improvements and putting out spot fires. Fortunately with the new boiler and tankless system, the biggest expenses are behind us, but with these older places, you just never know what's next.
|