Real results from real people who paid the price for comfort.
OK, some basic common sense here. The energy people all want hard data. Test the house before you do work. Test it after you do work. Compare the #’s. Divide pi by the height of the pyramids and that will give you a figure that tells you...
Yeah, I’m getting sarcastic. But sometimes I prefer anecdotes to hard data.
A client calls this last week and says they haven’t turned on their heat yet. Our nights have been in the 30’s haven’t they? This same client called in July and said they weren’t putting in air conditioning like they had planned because our remodel had tightened their house up so much they didn’t feel the need. Mid summer days of 105 degrees they were never climbing higher than 74 degrees inside. On these cool fall nights of mid 30 degree weather their home is staying high 60’s. The home itself works so well that there is at least a 30 degree differential between indside and out side temp. That means that on days between 30 and 100 degrees there is no need for any energy consumption to heat of cool the home. I’m curious to see how low the temperature dips before they need heat. Activities within the home should help with heating so we may get more temperature diffential in cool weather.
The facts. The walls are only two by fours, but we took the place clear down to the studs, used spray foam in the walls and caulked every opening we could find. Then we bumped the ceiling insulation to about 16” thick. Nothing sexy in the approach. No fancy gadget or reclaimed whatsit to sell. Just tight and solid craftsmanship.
And I suppose I shouldn’t harass the energy people since they taught me how to do most of this.