[Greenbuilding] Ceiling Fans at Night?

[bill.allen at verizon.net]

Bob,
Does your cost include the cellulose?  Was it sprayed?  Did you do that yourself?  
Looking for all the tips I can get....
Thanks
Bill

-----Original Message-----
From: "Bob Waldrop" <bwaldrop at cox.net>
Sender: greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2011 10:24:29 
To: Environmentally-preferable design, construction,	building elements<greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org>
Reply-to: "Environmentally-preferable design, construction,	building elements"
 <greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org>
Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] Ceiling Fans at Night?

I have nine inches in my walls and 14 in the attic.  To get 9 inches, we 
filled the existing walls (covered on the inside with plaster and lathe) 
with cellulose insulation, then built new interior walls inside of all of 
our exterior walls.  We then filled that new cavity with cellulose.  The 
total cost in 2005 was about $3,000, we did all of the labor (2 guys) except 
for a couple of days of work for a single day laborer.

Before we did this, nearly everyone we consulted here locally  said "that's 
too much insulation", as though somehow that were a mortal sin, and it 
"would not be cost effective".

But imho, cost effectiveness is in the eye of the beholder.  In  my case, at 
age 53 when we did this project, I was thinking about retirement.  Through 
some charitable work I do, I see a lot of seniors living in very challenging 
circumstances.  This was ahead of the financial crisis, but I have always 
been a bit pessimistic about future finances.  I am not making minimum wage, 
but I am not making a middle class salary either, and I will go into 
retirement without the so-called "necessary $500K" that people says you 
"have to have" to retire comfortably.

So my retirement plan is a house without a mortgage, that is very cheap to 
operate, and which has lots of edible landscaping.  I would rather spend 
money now, while I have income, that will reduce my expenses over time, than 
go with conventional wisdom now and end up shivering in the future.

To get past that conventional wisdom, we went through a public design 
process at runningonempty2 at yahoogroups.com, which has about 7,000 members 
and has been discussing peak oil and energy issues since 2001, which was led 
by a guy from Colorado who designs and builds passive solar houses for a 
living.  So we started a thread to discuss retrofitting a 1929 Craftsman 
bungalow, and after going through all our info (present energy use, existing 
wall and ceiling structure, etc) we came up with the present plan (which 
included replacing the south wall of our utility room with glass to add some 
passive solar) and implemented it.  It was something that we could do, 
within our skill set, and it has worked very well for us.

Bob Waldrop, Okie City


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lynelle Hamilton" <lynelle at lahamilton.com>
To: "Environmentally-preferable design, construction,building elements" 
<greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2011 5:28 AM
Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] Ceiling Fans at Night?


> How much wall insulation, Bob?
>
> Lynelle Hamilton
>
> On 05/01/2011 23:55, Bob Waldrop wrote:
>> Well I third this motion.  I have always felt that massive class action 
>> lawsuits should be filed against architects and designers for malpractice 
>> given the low levels of insulation so popular in these united States.
>> One of the unexpected benefits of our insulation project, coupled with


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