Making My 1973 House More Energy Efficient

SHORTGUN

Our house was built in 1973 and our aim is to make it more energy efficient, so far we have put in all new Weather King windows, new doors and put two (2) layers of R-25 in the attic, along with putting new ALCOA very best Vinyl Siding, I am going to put R-25 along the sill or but of the house and caulk along where the house meets the cement block to stop any air from coming in.

By biggest mistake was not insulating before putting the siding on, I personally do not know how will the walls are insulated. I also put in a RHEEM High Efficient Furnace 2 speed fan 95% and a RUDD AC 13 SEER.

My question for you is where else can I make my house more energy efficient? I would like to cut my heating bill in half. My Heating Bill last Winter was $650.00.

Also would I be wise to put all new wire 12-2 in for my eclectic.

Tom M

Sounds like your doing the right things. As for the walls if blown in insulation was done you can expect it to have settle about 20%. The vinyl siding is easily diconnected without damage and can be reused so pop open a course about 3/4 of the way up the cavity and bore a small hole to reveal whats inside. If you get an installer they are going to do the same thing, mind as well check it out for yourself first.

A.W.Davis

New energy efficient windows alone should drastically help lower your energy bill.

Other things to help would be:

Make sure your exterior doors have sweeps at the lower threshold to prevent cold weather from seeping in.

You mentioned you where unsure if your exterior walls where insulated, another way of checking to see if your walls where properly insulated would be to pull an outlet out of an exterior wall box and so if you can feel a draft, also sometimes there is a small gap between the sheetrock and the outlet box where you can see into that wall a little bit. That should help to determine if theres any insulation in the walls. I know in older homes a lot of contractors (at least in my area) insulated the exterior 2x4 walls with R-11 which isnt the best for R- value.

Also it wouldnt be a bad idea to add insulated foam gaskets around all of your outlets and switches on your exterior walls.....every little bit helps
http://www.goodcommonsense.net/fmgskts.html

Good luck.

__________________
A.W. Davis Construction Co.
http://www.awdavisconstruction.com/
Your friendly remodeling contractor

SHORTGUN

I am sure that the walls have insulation in them now, my biggest question is can one have more insulation blow-en into the walls and have a greater R factor? I would say the contractor used the very lowest R factor he would have be able to buy back in 1973, he was more interest in lining his pockets than looking out for the consumer, and now since very thing as far as heating and cooling has went up gauss who is paying for his greed, that's right the consumer is and that is me.

Yes he even took out some 2" X 4" and other support beam to fatten his pockets even more.

If there is anything else that I should be able to do to make my house more ENERGY EFFICIENT please help me out here. I am trying to have ever thing in please to have a very warm and cool home when I retire in a few years.

Remember the more you save on HEATING and COOLING at RETIREMENT the better you will be.

radiant barrier

doing all the right things but convential insulation does little to nothing against radiant heat loss/gain. need radiant barriers for that. see green insulation products.com for more info on best products going.

SHORTGUN

I have a Forced Air Furnace, not sure where you came up with Radiant Heat loss or gain.

May want to explain want you are getting at.

Tom M

Are you getting enough combustible air for that furnace. The original house breathes different then the tighter construction you are creating. Insulate all your supply ducts and tape them it will help.

SHORTGUN

I did put on OWENS CORNING'S Fan FOLD before I put on the siding, I looked up what you was talking about.

SHORTGUN

I have been asking what you use to insulate your ducts with and I am not getting any where on this question. Perhaps you will be able to answer this for me. I have sheet metal ducts. I have to agree with you on this, the tighter you make your home the better it is to heat, but than you are creating a new problem also, you need to get fresh air to your furnace also and I have this covered also.

Tom M

They have fiberglass encapsled blankets/rolls that you wrap and form around your feed lines with tape or whatever. They also have liners to go inside the ducts and help reduce noise. Good to hear you consider that make-up air it gets overlooked at times.