I just got nailed with another doozy of a heating bill. I have a semi here in Toronto that I have gutted and re-done. I have R-14 batts of Roxul in all the outside walls and icenyne sprayfoam (3″ thick on the roof). However the bay window in the master bedroom goes out past the brick wall and is covered by the porch roof. That section of floor (about 8 square feet) is uninsulated. Gorgeous Cedar front door that leaks like a sieve (no storm door and it sits askew in its frame, tried weatherstripping it but nothing seems to snug against it). Plus the basement is completly empty and has no insulation (basement is about six feet, five of which are below grade) none of the mudsills ( I think that is what they are called) on the exterior wall are insulated. Oh and the furnace is three days older than time. Hhhhmmmm now that I think about it no wonder I am paying so much…
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Try piling some of your newly aquired snow against your foundation for extra R's. I've got the insulation out of the ceiling in my project, it's not bad on the floor but the attic is quite cold. Just a thought, why don't you get icynene sprayed in your rim joists? It does a good job of keeping out bugs and critters, actually polyurethane would be better, but I understand the cost is sort of a downer there.
OK, if you are serious about your carbon footprint, here are a few suggestions:
WHY have you done nothing about your front door? A gorgeous front door that cannot be weatherstripped is unforgivable in TO. Get someone to look at it right away.
Do you have any way of insulating the floor space so it is not so cold?
Get some rigid insulation on your basement walls and make sure you insulate/vapor barrier the floor joists.
When you insulated and rebuilt, did you make sure to foam all the holes for the wiring, top & bottom plates etc.?
Investigate geo-thermal furnaces.
Quality repairs for your home.
AaronR Construction
Vancouver, Canada
Diomedes,
Three inches of Icynene in your roof? That's R-10.5. In my opinion, you actually need at least R-38, which would be about 11 inches. Why hire an Icynene contractor to come to your house and then spray such a thin layer of foam?
He's right - 10.8 in the roof @ R 3.6/inch. You are way under-insulated for Tronto.
Here in NJ we have R-19 to R-21 of foam in the walls plus R-38 roof - that wouldn't be overkill for ON.
Jeff
Edited 2/13/2008 1:11 am ET by Jeff_Clarke