Home Insulation: Save Money on Utility Bills

Home Insulation- Add Insulation to Your Home

Years ago, I bought an old farmhouse built in the 1860's era. This was a big two story house. When I bought it, it had 19 windows- all with single pane glass. It had no insulation in the walls. There was no insulation in the floors, either. The attic had a thin layer of mineral wool insulation.

A Thin Layer of Mineral Wool in the Attic was the Only Insulation in the House!
Image Source: Øyvind Holmstad CC-1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication

We moved in over the summer. As summer turned to fall, the furnace started running. Then the furnace stopped heating the house, and we realized that we had emptied the propane tank already! This was a 300 gallon tank, and propane was $1.29 per gallon at the time. That first winter, there were times we had to fill the propane tank more than once per month.

I quickly realized the value doing a home insulation project. Here are the home insulation improvements that we made:

Windows- Double Pane Replacement Windows with Argon

We replaced 18 of the 19 windows with double pane windows charged with argon. The argon layer between the glass provides insulation value in the windows. Heat easily moves through glass, but the gas layer between layers provides insulation value. This was a do-it-yourself insulation project. We ordered the windows 3 or 4 at a time and replaced a few on weekends until all but one had been replaced. We used an interior plastic layer on the one large window single pane window that we did not replace. I would estimated that installing each replacement window took a couple hours once we knew what we were doing. We added fiberglass insulation to fill any voids and caulked around each replacement window.

Doors- Replace Wood Entry Door with Insulated Door

We replaced one old hollow core entry door with a steel door with Styrofoam insulation inside. The old door had cracked and had places where you could see light through it. We placed large sheets of Styrofoam over two unused exterior door. We kept one original solid wood entry door with a single pane glass window. We added weather stripping to make a good seal around the two doors we kept as functional entry doors. Improving insulation around the doors was also a do-it-yourself insulation project, this can be done in a few hours.

I Used Styrofoam Panels to Cover Unused Entry Doors, Saving Energy
Image Source: Dr. Penny Pincher

Blocking Drafts

Unused Single Pane Basement Window Covered with Styrofoam Insulation to Block Drafts
Image Source: Dr. Penny Pincher

There were a couple small cracked single pane windows in basement. I blocked these with Styrofoam from the inside and sealed them in with spray foam insulation. I also applied caulk and spray foam insulation around openings for utility pipes, dryer vent, etc. that were letting air exchange directly between inside and outside the house. Up next was caulking around windows from the outside to fill any gaps. Blocking drafts is one of the most effective ways to lower your utility bill, and this is an easy do-it-yourself project.

Use Caulk to Fill Gaps in Siding and Around Windows to Stop Drafts
Image Source: Dr. Penny Pincher

You can use an Infrared thermal leak detector to find drafts or cold spots on walls or around windows. Just point scanner at your wall and view the readout on the IR scanner. This will tell you where you need to add more insulation or stop drafts to save on your utility bill. The Black and Decker model has a color-coded light that illuminates the area of your wall that is hot or cold as you scan your wall. This makes it easier to find drafts and cold spots since you can concentrate on the wall and not focus on the temperature readout all the time. When a red (hot) or blue (cold) spot is indicated, you can look at the temperature display to see the exact temperature of hot or cold spots.

Walls- Blow in Insulation

The interior walls of this house were plaster, and we wanted to keep the original plaster. So to insulate the walls, we worked from the outside. We hired a contractor to install blow in insulation. The contractor drilled holes through the siding and used a blower to fill the space in the walls with blow in insulation. The holes in the siding can be plugged with wood plugs. We just taped over the holes since we planned to replace some of the siding and paint in the spring.

The blow in insulation we used was made from recycled materials. The main component was recycled newspaper which was ground up into small pieces. Since paper is flammable, the insulation is treated with chemicals to make it non-flammable and suitable as a building material. Hiring a contractor to blow in insulation cost about $2000. I was upstairs playing with my kids on the cool day when they were blowing in the insulation. I could actually feel the house warming up as they added the insulation in the walls!

Attic- Add Fiberglass Batts

The insulation in the attic between the joists was a loose fill material that I believe is called mineral wool. The layer of insulation was only a couple inches thick. I bought some unfaced R-30 fiberglass batts and added this over the top of the existing insulation. Use unfaced fiberglass insulation when adding another layer of insulation if there is already a vapor barrier under the first layer. The vapor barrier prevents moisture from condensing when water vapor moves from a heated space to an unheated space.

This additional insulation made a noticeable difference, especially since the bedrooms were upstairs and the thermostat for the furnace was downstairs. It is often said that adding insulation in you attic is the most effective place to insulate to save on utility bills. Adding fiberglass batts to the attic was a do-it-yourself insulation project that took a single day to complete.

Use Unfaced Fiberglass Batts to Add More Insulation Over Existing Insulation
Image Source: Dr. Penny Pincher

Floors- Add Fiberglass Rolls

This project was a little more challenging. The old part of the house had a basement with easy access to the ceiling to install insulation. However, the new part of the hose had a crawlspace underneath, and only a foot or so of clearance in some places. Luckily, I like to save money so much that I didn't mind crawling under there in the dark to install some rolls of fiberglass insulation. I used faced R-15 fiberglass rolls with craft paper vapor barrier. The vapor barrier goes against the warm surface to prevent water vapor from condensing when it moves from the warm interior of the house to the cold exterior. This was a do-it-yourself insulation project. I worked on it a few evening a week for a month or so. Since there were cold drafts blowing in the basement, this helped keep the floors much warmer.

Use Faced Fiberglass Batts or Rolls for the First Layer of Insulation to Provide a Vapor Barrier
Image Source: Dr. Penny Pincher

Home Insulation- How Much Can You Save on Utility Bills?

The good thing about doing a home insulation project is that it keeps paying back all the time. In winter, you save money on heating bills every heating day after you install the insulation. In the summer, you save on cooling every day after you install the insulation. We spent a total of about $3000 on adding insulation to our old house. Since our heating bills were so high, I would say that the payback period for this investment was less than 3 years.

Adding insulation to your house will save you money on utility bills, make your house more comfortable, and increase the resale value of your house. Many insulation projects can be do-it-yourself projects, reducing the cost. If you have a older house, an insulation project can be a good investment.

Penny Pincher Journal

Penny Pincher Journal

Sunday, February 2, 2014