Radiant Barrier on One Story?

[Rick Modena]

Good Point. I'll keep my eye on simple, cheap stuff like door seals, replacing any of the old incandescent bulbs with LEDs or CFL lights, etc, and the insulation.

I would rather begin making savings on the energy costs NOW than just simply wait and eat into the summer months without anything done.

The cost savings will help pay for more home improvements down the line (at least that's the idea)

A lot of people don't like the CFL bulbs but I swear by them, especially in my old house. The kitchen alone had 7-120 watt incandescent spot bulbs (840 watts) we spent a lot of time in the kitchen and not many windows so we always had them on, you could stand under them and feel the heat. I changed my entire house to CFL but I'll use the kitchen as the point, I switched over to 17 watt CFL that gave off 75w light, the kitchen was then at 119 watts total. So as you can see (no pun) it was only running 1 of the old spots in power, a huge savings and the emissions (heat) factor as well went way down, it may take them about a minute or so to come up to full power but it wasn't that big of a deal to me.

[Lone Sailor]

Oh yeah, it's bad. The attic insulation is the worst part, but the original shit windows, and 10 other factors play into it. We need to start addressing that stuff, but I have been getting my power from my employer for the last 5 years, so with the low rate I have paid, the actual return on investment kept it low on the priority list.

I know the feeling. All the windows in this house are still original. If you find a good deal on windows and installer hit me up.

[8mpg]

doing radiant barrier will help...make sure you do foil not paint. You can buy it online if you want to do it yourself. Insulation will help but air sealing is your best bet. Anything you can do from the attic air getting inside or inside air getting into the attic (or outside). Caulk windows and doors. Build styrafoam enclosures for recessed lights. Seal around electrical outlets. A big one is sealing your a/c ducting to minimize loss.

[gripenfelter]

doing radiant barrier will help...make sure you do foil not paint. You can buy it online if you want to do it yourself. Insulation will help but air sealing is your best bet. Anything you can do from the attic air getting inside or inside air getting into the attic (or outside). Caulk windows and doors. Build styrafoam enclosures for recessed lights. Seal around electrical outlets. A big one is sealing your a/c ducting to minimize loss.

I have 22" of insulation....Do you have a suggestion on how to seal the vents/recessed lights if you can not reach them or can find them?

[talisman]

Shit. 3 inches of insulation? There's the damn problem. Fill that attic up! You might not need to even do anything else outrageous after that.

[mustang1200]

My usage over 12 months in a 2700sq ft 2 story home with gas heat and gas water heaters. We added a pool in October so the numbers are skewed a bit. The pool also ran on high a lot due to the cold winter. I've since made adjustments to the pool pump to reduce engine usage. That was done in mid/late January.

Our house has radiant barrier.

kWh/month
635/April
778/May
1191/June
1363/July
1583/Aug
1367/Sep
1372/Oct
1475/Nov
1838/Dec
1254/Jan
986/Feb
940/Mar
653/April

[BlackGT]

Don't have any electric bills yet, but we are closing on our house on Thursday. It's a 2,000 sqft 1 story with radiant barrier and is supposed to be very energy efficient. I will post up once we Alger a full months bill.

[8mpg]

I have 22" of insulation....Do you have a suggestion on how to seal the vents/recessed lights if you can not reach them or can find them?

Move the insulation.... You could try mastic tape under the trim ring of the recessed light into the housing. There is an energy efficiency guy on garden web that always suggest mastic tape on air ducts and can lights in the ceilings. Also using mastic on all a/c ducting connections in the attic.

[fordracing19]

I used air tight cans in my house and used mastic paste on the area between the can and drywall. I also used mastic on all electric boxes in the ceiling. With cfl or led you can pile the insulation over the can and not worry about thermal overload.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

[32vfromhell]

Going from 3 low profile attic vents to 7 low-profile vents should help.

[fordracing19]

Read Date Consumption
04-16-2014 1178 kWh
03-17-2014 1475 kWh
02-17-2014 2284 kWh
01-17-2014 2259 kWh
12-17-2013 1967 kWh
11-15-2013 910 kWh
10-18-2013 1354 kWh
09-19-2013 2198 kWh
08-19-2013 2403 kWh
07-19-2013 1849 kWh

3000sqft all electric feeding my shop,water well and septic system.

[Strychnine]

replacing any of the old incandescent bulbs with LEDs or CFL lights, etc, and the insulation.

Come get these. I still haven't removed all of them from the new place. We fucking hate them.

Seriously. We are in Spring now, but they are yours if you want them.

[gripenfelter]

Going from 3 low profile attic vents to 7 low-profile vents should help.

Always do Solar powered vents and get tax incentives.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/US-Sunlight-Professional-Series-30-Watt-Solar-Powered-Roof-Attic-Fan-9930TR/204340563?N=5yc1vZc662#customer_reviews

http://www.dsireusa.org/incentives/incentive.cfm?Incentive_Code=US37F

[32vfromhell]

Shit. 3 inches of insulation? There's the damn problem. Fill that attic up! You might not need to even do anything else outrageous after that.

Just reread the home inspectors report. He reported the average depth at 6 inches, so im not too far off. Looks like i should try to go for an average depth of 18+

[32vfromhell]

Always do Solar powered vents and get tax incentives.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/US-Sunlight-Professional-Series-30-Watt-Solar-Powered-Roof-Attic-Fan-9930TR/204340563?N=5yc1vZc662#customer_reviews

http://www.dsireusa.org/incentives/i...ive_Code=US37F

holy crap. one vent is more expensive than all 7 of the low profile vents going in!