Energy efficient home - insulation and heaters

[hallerb]

ANY K&T knob and tube a 2 wire 100 year old wiring system isnt designed o have insulation around the conductors

you really MUST confirm theres NONE left.

[SteveF]

Couple thoughts -

K & T is knob and tube wiring, really old stuff. Insulated knobs are attached to the studs inside the walls and the wires run from knob to knob. Definitely an issue if you want insulation in the walls.

If you want to save the door you should be able to find something to adequately seal from these folks:

This is the perfect time of year to do your own blower door test. Just buy or borrow a good fan, put it in a window and seal around it very well with duct tape, cardboard, etc. and let it pull air out of the house. Then go around feeling for cold drafts. If your gas furnace (or water heater, stove, etc) draw combustion air from inside the house you need to turn those off first otherwise you suck carbon monoxide into the house.

You really need to see about getting some insulation contractors to come in and discuss this. I just had Corbond (closed cell spray foam) shot in my attic at $0.75 per board foot (that's 12" x 12" x 1") and the quote for Icynene (open cell spray foam) was $0.35 per bd ft but that doesn't mean those are valid prices for your area. Plus that was open rafter bays which is a piece of cake compared to inside a finished wall. Yes, you can shoot the foam yourself (tigerfoam.com) but the cost per bd ft is higher. Another option which I just did for a small area is to cut 2" XPS foam board (the pink stuff at Home Depot) to fit the space, leave a 3/8" gap all the way around and foam it into place with Great Stuff.

I wouldn't touch the HVAC until all the draft sealing and insulation work is done.

Steve.

[hallerb]

With a 100 year old home K&T would of been state of the art and is likely buried in the walls.......

[trader4]

It's only going to reduce his energy bill if the upstairs unit is unheated/uncooled. Otherwise, if both his unit and the rental above are at about the same temp, insulation isn't going to to any good. In almost all cases like this the only reason insulation may be used between up/down units is to reduce noise.

[hallerb]

his heat will continue to rise since heat always rises, this requires his replacing the heat.

of course this only matters if someone else pays for the rental heat..

as a example my 2 story home with basement the 2nd floor is always warmer than the first, yet both floors are heated

soundproofing with closed cell foam will be excellent

[mm]

Don't give up. Maybe they can make other kinds of holes.

[mm]

My mail slot is not air tight either. Far from it. In the winter, I take 8 inches of the V-shaped plastic, trim the non-adhesive \\ to be half as high as it is made, and tape the adhesive half to the inside louver, so that the mail can go down. It inconveniences the postman a little, so in the spring i take it off (I don't use AC, so I have no use for it in the summer)

[hallerb]

better thru indoor walls, a good plasterer can fix them so you never knew wall was disturbed.

dare not insulate till the K&T situation is cleared up

the bottom line........

at some point the cost of insulating will exceed the energy saved while living in the home...

how much above that are you willing to spend?

insulating cielings nets large savings, walls not as much. so I insulated opur cielingts many years ago, and may do the walls in the future, they have no insulation.

[trader4]

I'd like to see any reference that suggests this is cost effective to do. The amount of energy transfer is proportional to the temp difference. Between an inside wall and the outside that could be

70-20= 50 degrees. That's significant and worth doing something about. Between a ceiling and the floor of a seperate upstairs apartment, the temp difference is going to be maybe 75-68= 7 degrees, which hardly seems worth worrying about, especially since just the drywall, airspace between, etc is already providing some minimal insulation.

[chi.james]

[chi.james]

[chi.james]

So I am going to order some weatherseals from Conservation Technology (thanks!), seal up any other leaks that I see, and have an energy audit performed. After that I intend to install insulation (after I have all the old wiring removed) into the walls. I am still not sure of the ceilings leading to the next apartment. If I wanted to do that, what are my options? Do I have to break down all of the ceiling first?

Any other suggestions? Can someone suggest a type of foam to use? So far, cellulose was suggested but I am not sure why. I was told by a contractor that cellulose for my application (through indoor holes) would be kinda expensive.

How much should I expect to spend > >

[chi.james]

[Bob F]

If you are paying for the heat on the 3rd floor, insulating below it will save you nothing, If the 3rd floor is un-heated, you would save a little, depending on the insulation above the

3rd floor, and wall and window insulation on the 3rd floor.

Bob

[chi.james]

So I am going to order some weatherseals from Conservation Technology (thanks!), seal up any other leaks that I see, and have an energy audit

performed. After that I intend to install insulation (after I have all

the old wiring removed) into the walls. I am still not sure of the ceilings leading to the next apartment. If I wanted to do that, what are my options? Do I have to break down all of the ceiling first? Any other suggestions? Can someone suggest a type of foam to use? So far, cellulose was suggested but I am not sure why. I was told by a contractor that cellulose for my application (through indoor holes) would be kinda expensive.

How much should I expect to spend on repointing my brick? Is that worth it?

I sent out a bunch of emails to f> I want to make my home more energy efficient. I live in a 2-family,

[Bob F]

Cellulose is not foam. It is essentually ground up newspaper treated for fire resistance. FWIW.

Bob

[trader4]

messagenews: [e-mail]...

No reason you can't blow insulation into that ceiling space just like walls. But it isn't going to be cost effective unless the upstairs apartment is unheated/uncooled, which would be unusual. The only ceiling that needs to be insulated is the top one which meets the attic, roof, etc., because that's where you have a significant temp delta.

newspaper treated