Oh dear...energy audit today

[mfglickman]

They did the first blower test.

Said an energy star house would be about 2100. Expected our house to come in around 4000.

But my little cottage that could came in at....7600. Yes, that's right. No, not a typo. Wonder what it would've been if we hadn't blown insulation into the attic...?

Auditors are now busily caulking and filling air gaps...then we'll see what the number comes to...

[Daniel Meyer]

Heh...I think our's moves that many CFM without a fan at all LOL!

Good luck! Let us know!

[Josiecat]

Yes, please report back!

[mfglickman]

OK, so they got it down to 6500 CFM. So that's roughly 6500 basketballs flying out of my house per minute with a wind speed of approximately 25mph. Ugh!

But the fact that they took it down from 7600 - 6500 in a couple of hours is motivating. I am to go around and make sure that air gaps around the sills where they meet the foundation are sealed, and continue rolling out batts of insulation in the crawlspace under the addition.

Question - has anyone ever insulated the floor joists of a crawlspace where the joists are not regular? Under the 1750's main house, a bunch of the original beams (trees) have additional support added so I'll need narrower pieces of insulation. Can I do that with backed insulation or will I tear my hair out trying to make narrow strips out of it?

All in all I think it was a good experience. My old hearths were huge culprits, but my windows were surprisingly good. I've got some instant improvements, a bunch of new lightbulbs, and a plan... can't ask for more can I?

Mary

[Nancy W]

OK, so they got it down to 6500 CFM. So that's roughly 6500 basketballs flying out of my house per minute with a wind speed of approximately 25mph. Ugh!

But the fact that they took it down from 7600 - 6500 in a couple of hours is motivating. I am to go around and make sure that air gaps around the sills where they meet the foundation are sealed, and continue rolling out batts of insulation in the crawlspace under the addition.

Question - has anyone ever insulated the floor joists of a crawlspace where the joists are not regular? Under the 1750's main house, a bunch of the original beams (trees) have additional support added so I'll need narrower pieces of insulation. Can I do that with backed insulation or will I tear my hair out trying to make narrow strips out of it?

All in all I think it was a good experience. My old hearths were huge culprits, but my windows were surprisingly good. I've got some instant improvements, a bunch of new lightbulbs, and a plan... can't ask for more can I?

Mary

As a temporary measure to stop the draft through the hearths, (until you figure out the most appropriate solution), lean a piece of plywood or drywall up to the heath and set a solid piece of furniture in front to hold the plywood in place. For even better air leak prevention, add foam rubber stips between the board and the front of the hearth. Foam rubber like for a chair cushion, not spray foam; I would not like the job of cleaning the spray foam off the hearth. Some fabric stores have 1 inch thick foam.

[Josiecat]

And try the outlet insulators.

[lavender_bush]

Foam rubber like for a chair cushion, not spray foam; I would not like the job of cleaning the spray foam off the hearth. Some fabric stores have 1 inch thick foam.

Or the pink (panther) foam insulation would work well, we have a temporary wall of them to stop the drafts from the basement giving us the chills in the family room. Very effective.

Another vote for the outlet insulation.

[jharkin]

I don't know about hanging batts between irregular floor joists... To be honest I removed insulation like that under the floor of our addition. the POs had poorly tried to hold it in place with chicken wire.. It was falling down and you could see mold issues starting from all the moisture the insulation was trapping there (dirt floor crawl). Instead I just foamed the joints between the sills and sub-floor. Since my crawl is open to the basement and is full of water pipes etc I would lean towards insulating the walls if I could do it without trapping moisture in the stonework..

The outlet insulators are good but Ive found they only slow things down at best. I had better results dong that AND spray foam in the gaps between the poorly mounted outlet boxes and drywall. I found a latex based foam in a can product at the hardware store that is a lot nicer to work with than great stuff for this application, just takes forever to cure.

As always the biggest improvements will be from sealing gaps in the attic and the basement to slow the chimney effect.

All this talk makes me wish I could get a blower test done. Nobody is willing to do it because the house used to have asbestos pipe insulation. The abatement certification apparently is not good enough.

[McCall]

Seems like your crawlspace might be a good candidate for tigerfoam. I plan to use some for my unvented attic space, attic is only probably 2 to 3 feet high since I have a full third floor. Tigerfoam is weatherproof too and can be used for an amazing number of things you would not think of and is DIY.

[Patchules]

Insulation bats won't help much in reducing infiltration. I would not expect a significant reduction in CFM's.

Foam and caulk and weather stripping are needed. If you have the old windows with sash weights a lot of air gets in thru the pockets in the walls. If you have a vented attic, air can travel from the attic into the walls and down into the living areas. Air will follow all the penetrations for wires for the lights and outlets and even thermostats.

You can study this by reducing the pressure in the house and using an incense stick. A powerful fan in the window and masked can be used. You have to make sure gas burning appliances won't come on and temporarly block their external vents plus fireplaces.
The incense stick makes just the right amount of smoke for small air currents. Big air currents can move bowling balls.