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Re: SlimJim in COLD weather
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Posted by Bob Minich on Sunday, 27 April 2008, at 8:03 p.m.,
in response to Re: SlimJim in COLD weather, posted by Richard Wooldridge
I don't have any easy answers, but I can't imagine the expense trying to heat or cool an uninsulated house. I would think redoing interior walls to get access for insulation would actually have a reasonable long term payback vs no insulation at all, not to mention increased comfort.
In my case, I've got mediocre insulation levels and very poor air sealing so my bills are very high relative to similar sized houses, and they'd be even worse if I picked more typical set points on the thermostat. (I do 78-80 F minimum in the summer and 68 F maximum in the winter.)
I toy with the idea of adding another layer of framing and drywall inward from my upstairs exterior walls to get some additional thickness for knee-wall insulation facing very hot (130 F in the summer) attic spaces. Otherwise, the best I can imagine is replacing the existing rock-wool batts in the walls with some sort of foam insulation for a higher R-value, and that isn't at all cheap, either.
In your case, I'd think the cost/benefit numbers work out much more in your long term favor. For me, I'm probably best off just moving. The house is small enough that energy savings will take a very very long time to pay back remodeling costs. Without insulation, I'd be paying something like 8 times more for heat and air, and that would make the payback just a few years vs the life of the mortgage.
Have you done any calculations to see how much you'd save decent with insulation?
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This site is all about building a cool, energy efficient house, that makes maximum use of earth sheltered design, passive solar heating and cooling, geothermal exchange energy management, and right sizing of the house for it's designated use. The home's placement is on a south-facing hillside in Deep Creek Lake, Maryland. This site describes the design process, the technologies used and the expected results. We also have a comprehensive Links Page for anyone who is also interested in designing a similar project.