July Energy Usage

I am still seeing incredible benefits to the insulation and air sealing that I did in March through May of this year.

Remember, though, that I had 3 other people here last July with 3 TVs and the computers and routers were not completely switched off.

I don't think I set the temperature lower last year because my sister and her husband got cold in the house and my brother lived in the basement where it is 10 degrees cooler. This summer has been substantially hotter than last summer. The chart  below shows some July temperature averages from the past 15 years. The lowest temperature for July 2015 was 67 degrees, the highest 98. The lowest MAXIMUM temperature was 82 while there was a day last July where the high was only 69. This year's average high temperature was 91.9 and the mean temperature was 82. Last year's mean was 77.9. It has been much hotter this year which makes the drop in energy use even more impressive.

I will continue to monitor the energy use. My brother moved into his new home in September 2014 and my sister and her husband moved away in October so I should have better comparisons for one person living in the home after that time.

Also, remember that I insulated only to about a level of R-20 just over 1/2 of the current code requirements of R-38. When the weather cools off, I will be up in the attic again making some structural changes and increasing the insulation to around R-50.

Energy Benefits from Attic Insulation - June numbers

I got my Duke energy bill yesterday. My electric usage continues to be much, much lower than last year. I did have 3 more people here last year though. The one point I would like to make about that though is that none of them really ran the air conditioner more than I would have. My sister and her husband got cold in my house and my brother lived in the basement which is substantially cooler than upstairs. There were 3 TVs in the house at that time that was probably a significant energy drain. I don't have a TV. Also my computer and my router are on switches that are turned off when I am not using them.

Anyway, here are the numbers from June which was a very hot month. Days were often right at or above 100. I was very comfortable in my home.

Usage less than half compared to last year. I am very pleased with that and the improved comfort level.

Attic Insulation - May Energy Report - Proof that it WORKS

I could't get my scanner to scan so I had to make do with an iPhone photo. 

In March and April I spent many hours in my attic air sealing and insulating hoping that getting the insulation to an R-20 level would make a difference. I have plans for putting in 10-12 inches of blown-in cellulose in the fall after I do some more work up there such as beef up the rafter supports for one thing as my roof is only held onto the house by a few nails toenailed to the rafters.

I elected to use denim because I was SO tired of itching from all the mineral wool insulation which I love, but I do not love the itch that comes with it. Denim is a dream in terms of installation compared to mineral wool. Still mineral wool, specifically Roxul (Carlton, my carpenter, calls it Roxie), is my all time favorite insulation. Just remember that even when I talk fondly about denim as an insulation material.

Anyway, I got my May energy report from Duke Energy and I used about 15 KWH per day for a total of 428. Though on my energy report it shows only 368 for the month. They must have used a different interval for their report.

I have saved all my energy bills for more than 10 years, but I can't find the complete collection for a better analysis. I do have some from this year and last though for comparison. My sister and her husband lived with me from December 2013 to October 2014. Also my younger brother lived in my basement while we were building his house from sometime in 2013 to September 2014. You can see the drop in consumption in November with only one occupant, but I was above the green energy efficient home during the winter, probably from heat loss through my attic until I started insulating the attic in March.

So I have graphic proof that just getting my attic to R-20 has made a big difference in energy use. I will tell you that the house is so much more comfortable.

One of these days I hope to show a chart of energy use correlated with the work I've done on the house - metal roof, 2 inches of polyiso under the HardieBoard siding, new windows, attic insulation, etc, but that will take some research.

Adventures in Air Sealing and Insulation

So I finished a tiny part of the insulation in the gable over my entrance porch. It is hard to convey how difficult it is to crawl into that area.

Here is a photo showing the path to that gable end.

I haven't used a measuring tape to see what the distance is from the plywood covering the joists to the ridge beam, but I've measured it with my body. It is shorter than my torso. That's my foot to give you perspective. I actually think I have splinter in my scalp from this adventure.

This is the porch area caulked for air sealing. I used some fire-rated caulk because that is what I had on hand. That's why it's red.

My favorite caulking gun is show below. It's the Siga Primur Applicator Gun for tubular bags.
It's what I used most of the time at John's house. I use it with Prosoco Joint and Seam sealer, another product I also love for air sealing.

My tools for sealing the rainscreen gap. You really aren't supposed to seal the rainscreen gap. The idea is that with this gap behind the siding, it can dry out easily, be less prone to causing rot, and paint will adhere better. But this area was not detailed correctly (I really don't think any of it was detailed correctly) because it goes directly into an area that should be insulated. It should either have a gap at the top of the siding or go above the insulation. So I decided to close off this area. There are gaps between the siding anyway so I think it can dry effectively anyway. 

Same area after small pieces of foam were caulked in place.

Whew! The insulated porch ceiling is shown below. About 11 inches of UltraTouch Denim Insulation for an R-value of ~38. Hey, I met code there. 

This was a painful task. The other side of the gable is a little easier because it doesn't step down like the ceiling on the porch does, but it is almost as challenging. I don't think there are any gaps I have to air seal though. I'll have to explore and make sure. 

That was quite enough of an adventure for one day. My neck, elbows (from the army crawl), abs are recovering. I hope to finish the other side of the gable tomorrow.

Why Insulating is hard - if you do a good job, that is.

Today I am not loving my insulation project so much. Today the job is very difficult. Today I don't like my insulation very much at all, but what I did today, had to be done.

First here are some photos of the current state of insulation in my attic. Not very effective insulation. The paper "vapor barrier" has seriously deteriorated. The second photo shows the insulation near my chimney. I dread insulating around that because you have to install a fire barrier before you can put insulation outside of the fire barrier and that's despite the face that I don't use my fireplaces. What you cannot tell from these photos is that the tallest point is about 4 ft. It is extremely difficult crawling around in there.

Older fiberglass insulation from the 50s

Ok, so here is the worst place to insulate. It is over my outdoor front porch and there are obvious air leaks and no insulation. In addition, the attic ceiling height might be 2 feet at best. You will be bonking your head on the rafters.

This view is looking straight down at those gaps. I'm going to put a small piece of foam board there to seal that area.

Remember the most important principle in applying effective insulation is air sealing before insulation. Otherwise your insulation just functions as an air filter.

So I caulked all around in this area of my front porch ceiling today. No after photos because I was so covered in caulk that I could not pull out my iPhone to take a picture.

Also, here's helpful hint. Caulk the area that is away from you first so you don't have to crawl through the just applied caulk to get to the distant area. You will be much happier if you do that.

Insulation - My Favorite Thing

You know I love insulation, even more than air sealing. I even dream about insulation, mostly because my home is cold and I dream about being warm and snug in my own home. That problem will be improved on very shortly.

Anyway back to the insulation at hand, several years ago I bought a little house that we've partly renovated that Kathy lives in. In fact when I started this blog, the first stuff I wrote about was what we were doing at that house. There is a very solid, little concrete block building in the backyard (about 12' x 25' interior dimensions) that has been mostly used to store things. Since the home is so small at about 900 square feet, we decided to renovate this building to make it livable and give Kathy and her son just a little more breathing room.

Carlton has done most of the work. First, he studied the building carefully and felt confident that there weren't any water issues and that the block walls and roof framing were solid. Then he installed some windows to bring light into the space. Then framed the floor and installed 2 doors - one so you can go into the building from the driveway without having to open the gate to the fence. We may build a garage someday, so this door would open into the garage. Finally, Carlton installed a layer of foam insulation board on the interior of the walls, then framed the walls and insulated them with 3.5" mineral wool and installed drywall. That's where he stopped, now it's my turn.

Carlton was able to insulate a large portion of the ceiling with the Roxul mineral wool left over from John's house, but he ran out before he could insulate it all. I told him, "No worries, I'll finish it up." If you recall from last summer I spent HOURS and HOURS under John's house air sealing and insulating the floor of his house. It is tedious doing this work overhead. I also got tired of the itchy, scratchy sensation from the Roxul. It is supposed to be less obnoxious that fiberglass, but I wouldn't know as I've never installed fiberglass insulation before. In any case, I did not feel like suiting up to avoid the itching. So I ordered from Soundproof Cow once again and got some denim insulation.

My plan was to use these flexible metal tension rods to hold the 2 layers of 3" denim insulation in the 24" on center ceiling bays.

Don't do it. Don't buy those things. They will flop down and hit you in the head and they won't hold anything. You can see the scratches on the rafter on your right where they kept falling down on me. I had to come up with a new method to hold up the insulation.

The solution? An insulation corset.

I didn't want to use staples because it's hard for one person to hold the insulation up, pull the string tight and staple all at the same time. Also I don't have John's pneumatic staple gun set-up and regular staplers hurt my hands. (Youngsters, you will be amazed at what hurts you when you get just a little older - say, in your 50s.) So I hammered in some roofing nails because they have big heads on them and would hold the masonry string well. I chose masonry string because I figured it would pull taut and hold pretty well. I think it looks pretty good. Above shows the first layer of the 3 inch deep insulation.

And here is the full bay of insulation. I'm pretty happy with it. I will probably cover the seam between the Roxul insulation and the denim insulation with a band of the Roxul Rockboard that is left over from  John's house.

Denim insulation is a challenge to cut. It will not cut with a utility knife. Often people just end up tearing it which works pretty well though you won't get a good edge. I kind of do a sawing, tearing motion with a drywall saw.

Below you can see what the edge looks like.

So that was my insulation adventure today. I have 5 more 24" bays to insulate and 8 narrower bays. Tomorrow some more insulation will arrive. It is planned for my house, but I will use a few bales of it on this building.

I have not yet expanded on the topic of how much insulation should you use beyond the code requirements. That is coming as well.

Thank you for taking a look at my blog. I hope you are warm and comfortable.

Building to Code - Building the Worst House Allowed by Law

If you think about building a house to the minimum level required by the building code, you are actually building a house to worst standard allowed by law. In other words, you're not building to a good standard or a reasonable standard, but to the lowest level possible. Why would anyone do that?

Obviously in this blog, my focus is on energy efficiency and making a home environment comfortable and healthy. So when I think about building or renovating a home, I think how can I make this home more comfortable, more energy efficient within reason (which usually means within financial reason) as opposed to what is the LEAST AMOUNT OF INSULATION I can get away with.

Energy standards for residential buildings are covered by the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC). These codes are updated every 3 years and adopted by individual states in the US. You can see in the map below that the majority of the states in the US are covered by the IECC 2009 code (states in blue). That's true for SC where I live.

Adoption of International Energy Conservation Codes by State

https://www.energycodes.gov/adoption/states

International Energy Conservation Code Zone Map

So what does that mean in terms of actual energy conservation? Specifically, for South Carolina that means that my attic should be insulated to an R-value of 30, my wood framed walls to R-13. If my house was built over a crawlspace the floor should be insulated to R-19. I've got a basement so that doesn't apply. My house was built in 1954 so truthfully none of these standards apply which is part of problem - why I am not comfortable in my house this winter. 

R-value as you know means resistance to heat flow. So what does it take to meet these rather lax requirements for my zone 3 home? Here is a chart I've made showing various types of insulation with R-values. 

Type of Insulation Material	R-value/inch	Notes
Snow	1	Added just because the northeast is buried in snow
Wood	1.1	Wood is not really an insulation material but listed here for comparison since it is the major building material for most homes in the US and is about 25% of the frame in a home.
Wood Insulation board (Agepan)	3.1	Agepan is a wood-based OSB type panel imported from Germany
Fiberglass (loose fill)	2.2 - 2.9
Fiberglass (batts)	2.9 - 3.8
Cellulose (loose)	3.1 - 3.8
Cellulose (wet spray)	3.1-3.8
Cellulose (dense pack)	3.5
Mineral Wool (loose)	2.2 - 3.3	Also called stone wool, made from volcanic rock and recycled slag
Mineral Wool (batts)	3 – 3.8
Mineral Wool (board)	4	Depends on density of the product
Cotton (batts)	3.7
Wool (batts)	3.5	Really, wool as from sheep
Foamglas (board)	3.44
Cork, expanded (board)	3.6
Cementitious (foam)	2.0 - 3.9
Phenolic (foam)	4.4 – 8.2
Polyisocyanurate (foam)	5.6 - 8.0
Polyurethane (foam)	5.6 - 8.0

You can make some broad generalizations that simplify the calculation for how much insulation you need. First wood has an R value of 1per inch and that makes up 25% of your wall. Second, most fibrous insulation (that includes cellulose, fiberglass, mineral wool, and denim) range from about 3-3.8/inch. No significant difference in R-values between them really. The foam materials roughly range from 4-6/inch in terms of effective insulation. So you pick either a fibrous insulation or a foam insulation and go from there. I'm anti-foam insulation for the most part so I would exclude that now. (Maybe another post some time down the road.) So to reach an R-13 wall, I need 3.7 inches of fibrous insulation which not coincidentally is about the space provided by a 3.5 inch stud wall. To reach my attic insulation requirement I need about 8.5 inches of insulation.

Where am I now in my cold little house? I had all new vinyl windows installed about 10 years ago, then about 5 years ago I had my house covered in 2 inches of polyisocyanurate foam for a R-10 continuous layer on my walls and new siding over that. What I have not done is insulate my attic because I have a leak around my chimney despite having it "fixed" about 4-5 times and I may to have to take a ceiling down when I renovate my kitchen. The R-value of the compressed fiberglass batts that do not cover the entire floor of the attic might be 6-8 at most. That's where most of my heat goes. That is the main reason I am in fleece long johns, wool socks, multiple sweaters and still cold despite the heat pump running constantly. 

This house was built to code in its day. When energy was cheap, you just ran "Old Bessie", the ancient old heater (since replaced) constantly and kept warm. That doesn't work today and it won't work for the future. We have to do better with our houses. We will be happier, more comfortable, and have healthier places to live if we think past code minimums. 

Leaky Walls - Infrared Photos on vacation in Montana

I just purchased a small infrared camera that attaches to your iPhone. It's called the Flir One. It's a little awkward to use because of the way it's attached to the phone (you have to take your phone out of whatever case it's in and insert it in the Flir One case which is a tight fit).

I used it a little bit when we went on vacation.

Here are a few photos.

The first one is from our hotel room in Bozeman, I believe. Obviously the dark colors are colder and the lighter colors represent warmth. You can see the leakage at the corner, you can see where the individual studs are in the wall. I wonder if they are metal studs because heat is conducted so much more effectively through metal. But the striking thing is the serious cold air at the intersection of the floor and the wall.

The second photo is from Big Sky, I think. Same problem, serious air leakage, cold air infiltration at the corner of the room where the walls intersect the floor. 

This view shows a seriously under-insulated corner stud.

I need to go over my house and take some photos. I have not done so yet because the daytime temperatures outside have been so close to my inside temps that it wouldn't show where the heat is leaking out and the cold is coming in.

Door installation with Exterior Insulation

I don't have a big readership of my blog which is fine with me. I mostly put the construction stuff out there to help anyone else who might be trying to build or renovate a better, more comfortable, more energy efficient house. Every once in awhile I get a question about the actual construction of John's house and I certainly want to help if I can.

One reader asked a question about installing the doors with the exterior insulation, the Roxul mineral wool Comfortboard. Here's the question:

Hello, wanted to say great job on the house! 

Im currently gutting a 1930's bungalow down to the frame & sheathing & am planning to add roxul comfortboard to the exterior. I see you went with the approach of mounting the doors and windows to the outside of the now-thicker walls. The windows are easy, but I'd like to see or hear about how you did the doors. Did you fir out the door opening, mount the door to the outside of the thicker wall, then trim the difference inside? If so, does this stop the door from swinging open fully? Thanks for any input on this detail....there is so little info online about the door installs on these exterior insulation jobs.

From looking at the photos the doors were installed on the outside of the thicker wall and trimmed out on the interior. It probably does prevent the door from opening more than 90 degrees. Here are some photos that might help explain it better than I could.

Back Porch Door with Polyiso around the edges, taped

Back Porch Door Opening

Front Door Framing with tape before installation

Close-up view of door framing

Installed Back Porch Door showing the thickness of the wall

Front Door Sidelights installed

Another Porch Door fully opened - looks like it opens just past 90 degrees

The only 2 articles I could find that address this issue are listed below. Green Building Advisor (GBA) is the single best place to get information. You do have to sign up to ask questions, but it costs nothing as a regular member and you get great advice from people who know their stuff.

Here is a similar question on GBA to the one you asked:

http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/community/forum/energy-efficiency-and-durability/37017/window-and-door-installations-thick-walls

This is an article in Fine Homebuilding where they address your question when double stud walls are used:

http://www.finehomebuilding.com/design/departments/energy-smart-details/windows-and-doors-in-double-stud-walls.aspx

So I hope this is helpful.

Duct insulation in the Crawlspace

If you are involved with building a house, you will encounter challenges that you never thought could exist. You will think to yourself, "How can this be so difficult?" And when you try to figure out how to insulate a crawlspace and the ducts that run through it, you will be especially challenged. 

Remember one of the highest priorities in building John's house is to make it energy efficient. That means you try to minimize the energy losses from the home's shell, the thermal envelope. And that includes every side of the house including the dreaded crawlspace. Now we made the crawlspace a little less disgusting (dark and dank and spidery) because we did not enclose it. The house's foundation is on piers. So the space is open to the outside. I designed it that way because the house is very near a pond and a large creek and there is potential for flooding.  We had a torrential rainstorm 2-3 years ago that flooded most of the yard, it did not come to the area where the house is located. Still I thought it was prudent to build on piers to eliminate that potential problem.

We have insulated most of the joist bays in the crawlspace, but now we have insulate around the ducts. The ducts are already wrapped with what is listed as R-8 fiberglass though I don't believe it is truly R-8. If you google R-8 HVAC duct wrap you will see various products that are used to wrap ducts. These products are generally 2 inches thick and have foil-faced layer that is taped around the ducts. In order for the insulation to truly have that R-value (resistance to heat transfer) it cannot be compressed. It must be 2 inches thick, but you really can't wrap and tape it around the ducts and preserve that 2 inch space. It is usually compressed to about 1 inch which gives you at best an R-value of 4. I think that is much more realistic. 

You can see where I reinforced the taping on the duct insulation and how it compresses the insulation surrounding the ducts. I've made sure there are NO air leaks in the insulation surrounding the ducts. 

So here's the situation, you've got a house with the roof insulated > R-50, walls insulated > R-30, floors insulated >R-30 and your crawlspace ducts are insulated at R-4? Are you kidding me? That drives me crazy. I just can't see leaving them like that. So we are encapsulating the ducts in 1-2 layers of polyisocyanurate foam boards which will triple the effective R-value surrounding the ducts. It will not likely equal the insulating on the floor, but it will be close to R-20. 

This post aims to show you some of the details of enclosing the ducts. It is tedious work, not as itchy as working with the batt insulation. I hope I can explain these details so that they make sense. 

This photo demonstrates 3 things:

1. The joist bay is air sealed at the edges with Prosoco Joint and Seam filler so air from one bay cannot move from one joist bay to another.

2. The duct is very well air sealed to the subfloor.

3. We have a 2x4 in front of the duct which is to help with placement of the foam board which will enclose the duct. 

Back view of the same duct, now surrounded by polyiso foam boards.

Ok, this is view shows the same duct after we've applied the foam board onto the front. The foam board is glued on with construction adhesive, then foamed around the edges. Also the front of the board is taped to the subfloor and joist bays. So the likelihood of leakage around the foam boards is very low. 

You can see where we have installed some more boards around the duct and the joists. There will be longer boards parallel to the ducts on each side and underneath. Again, all the edges between the boards will be foamed and taped as well as I possibly can manage. This was a slightly more difficult duct because it had to dip down around the rim joist from the main part of the house and back up to the porch. It is the only duct in the enclosed porch which is just 8' x 16'. 

I'm off again tomorrow so I should be finished with this duct then. I hope this is helpful for someone working on their house. Good luck. 

Crawlspace Insulation

Crawlspace insulation under enclosed porch

The current project on the perpetual house (perpetual building mode, that is) is insulating the crawlspace. Anything in a crawlspace is a pain, but insulating in a crawlspace is particularly painful - insulation in your eyes, breathing insulation, insulation on your skin, etc, etc. I wear a mask, glasses and a Tyvek suit to make it a little less onerous.

We are doing this ourselves because we can and our labor is free. We is me and Rich, my brother-in-law. Also I believe that no one else will do the same quality work. I don't know that to be true, but I suspect it is true based on the insulation work I've seen done in the past by others and the fact that no one else cares as much as I do and no one else is as willing to do this painful job as I am.

Ok, so here is the plan for insulating under the porch - the floor joists are 8" which works out to a 7.5" space for insulation. I have 2 different kinds of insulation that could be used for this area: -
5.5" Roxul mineral wool insulation which is listed as R-23
2" Roxul Rockboard insulation (about R-8).

For the 7.5" space, we installed the 5.5" Roxul first and the 2" Rockboard to finish filling up  the joist bay. The 5.5' Roxul batts were easy to apply, but the 2 ft wide Rockboard was a pain. We had to cut it to fit each of the floor bays which ranged from 21" to 23" wide. Then we had to wedge that stuff in. It was awful. I don't find Roxul to be as horribly itchy as fiberglass, but it does aggravate me, especially when I have to wedge it in with my shoulder and the stuff is going down my neck. Some of it was a little loose so we put strapping across it to hold it until I install the DA vapor permeable membrane from 475 Building Supply.

Larger view of the crawlspace insulation under the enclosed porch. Strapping is to hold it in place until the DA vapor permeable membrane is installed by stapling it to the floor joists. 

Lynn warned me about critters under the house, but other than the Carolina Wren nesting on one of the piers that we are having to work around, and an occasional wasp, critters have not been a problem. There is a dead critter present though. You might be able to see on the pier on your right. See the close-up below.

A little dead bat. I keep meaning to take it down, but I really don't want to touch it even with gloves on. 

I have to fill 2-3 small gaps where we did not abut the Roxul Rockboard together very well and I need to foam the gap between the floor joists which you can see above the bat. That is the space between an open part of the porch and the area below the door to the enclosed porch. 

Well, that's where we are today. I am off tomorrow so I will work on insulating the rest of the floor under the house. It is forecasted to be a tiny bit cooler tomorrow - in other words, it is not supposed to reach 90 tomorrow. Little blessings. Thank you for reading.