10% saving

[arcosine]

I reduced my January heating bill by 10% even though the average temperature was 1 degree less from last year. I added a layer of R39 in the attic of the coldest room and put cold combustion air inlet to the furnace.

[wmjinman]

Congrats!

Unfortunately, my heating bill went way up last month.

[HyperMileQC]

Success indeed!

What is R39?

[arcosine]

r 39 is about 9 inches of fiberglass insulation.

[ECONORAM]

Another thing you might do is shoot expanding foam insulation into the doorways. I found on our current house and previous house, there is a gap between the prefabbed door frame and the opening in the house. I drill a 1/4" (or slightly smaller) hole behind the top and bottom hinges and squirt the foam in. Might need a wrap of tape around the tube to seal the drilled hole. And don't remove both hinges at the same time! On the other side, I drill the holes through the hole for the lock latch; one angled up, then a second angled down. Stuff some paper or a dowel in one hole so the foam doesn't shoot back out at you.
You can expect to see some foam creep out between the trim and the painted walls...in multiple spots; happens to me every time. This stuff is sticky too. It's a drag 'cuz it doesn't come off easy and needs to be painted... It takes a few days to wear off of your fingers too. But, it does cut down on the cold or hot air coming through. Doing this to all three outside doors cut our a/c bill by $20 month in Oklahoma City. 3 hinged doors: front door, back door, and garage door.

[arcosine]

I want to seal up all the outlets, switched and light fixtures. Wear rubber gloves!

[mackerel]

The #1 and #2 things you can do to lower your heating bill are, in no particular order,

a) Insulate your basement walls. Have a professional do it with 2" of spray foam. The time and labor expense is worth it, because you don't have to build cavities to hold spray foam, and it air seals the sill area. Spray on the inside to two feet below exterior grade.

b) Air seal. Use caulk, foam, and carpentry. Use sheet metal and high temp caulk to close up the area around the chimney. Search out plumbing and electrical penetrations where small pipes and wires go through larger holes. Seal up open wall tops in the attic. Seal up the basement bulkhead door with an insulated, air tight inner hatch system. Seal the openings to plumbing chases that connect to the attic or exterior walls. Make a tight fitting hatch to the attic, insulate it with foam board, give it a gasket to seal against, and latches to hold it tight to the seal.

Which one of these is most important depends on the house, but it's usually one of them.

Attic vents are supposedly to get rid of moisture in the attic. Why is there moisture there to begin with? Stop the flow of warm moist air from inside the house into the attic, then seal up soffit vents. Beware of moisture when air sealing, but it's worth fixing moisture issues and then air sealing, even if you have to install a full moisture membrane across the whole damp basement floor. Use kitchen and bath exhaust fans. Make sure they vent to the outside.

Also beware of fiberglass. It's good for rodent housing and furnace filters and little else. It's effectiveness depends a lot on how it's installed, and a poor installation can loose you 3/4 of the insulation value. Blown fiberglass never settles and will forever allow convection loops to steal your heat. It is impossible to install fiberglass well in a truss roof attic. Use cellulose in attics and cavities. Cavities require a professional high pressure dense-pack blowing machine, so hire that job out. Use spray foam where the cost of building a cavity outweighs the cost of the foam.

[roosterk0031]

R is a resistance to heat flow, just like electricty, R11-13 is equal to a 3.5" fiberglass batt of insulation, R19 is what 5.5" of fiberglass (2x6 wall's instead of 2x4 walls) the greater the R value the slower the heat flows. Foam has a way higher R value per inch than fiberglass does, something like R5 per inch. Spray in foam is even beter because it stops inflitration (air flow), you know the day's with a good North wind when the air comes out of the electrical outlets.

Personally I'll sacrafice infiltration as it improves indoor air quality vs a really sealed house, so I'm OK if my door leak a little. But my t'stat is never set over 63 degrees and my family are perfectly OK with it.

[mackerel]

Deal with air quality by dealing with the sources of the problem, not by having a leaky house.

My Sister in Law had some problems in her house. The builder's rep said "We think a house should be able to breath". Jeebus, man! The freaking toilet water is frozen!

A house should breath through known points of ventilation at a controlled rate, not leak like a sieve. Air leaking into walls from the living space brings warm moist air to places where it can condense, feeding mildew the water it needs to grow and make you sick.

Know your air exchange rate. Get a blower door test. I say again: Fix the problems and tighten the house. Ventilate with vents, not cracks. The money you save in heat, repair, and medical bills will be worth it.

[arcosine]

There are enough leaks in the house to make the humidity low.