[Greenbuilding] best practice

John Salmen terrain at shaw.ca
Wed Mar 16 23:07:13 CDT 2016


Good guy advice has to be based on something. If you look at insulation performance curves going beyond r12-16 (depending on insulation used) it doesn’t make ‘cents’ as the improvement is minimal but it can be easily calculated – and make your decision based on that. In a decent building energy model you would probably find the best places to insulate that would make the best improvement – generally ceilings and perimeter is the result more than walls??

 

If it is a small house (which 1883 would be) ventilation and heat recovery technology would be a better investment as the ventilation requirements will be the biggest heat loss as you will be cutting a bigger hole to ventilate than the insulation would compensate for – unless it is a really strategic design.

 

Of course if we are saving the planet....all decisions are based on expendable income.

 

From: Greenbuilding [mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Sacie Lambertson
Sent: March-16-16 6:43 PM
To: Greenbuilding
Subject: [Greenbuilding] best practice

 

A good guy and relatively young architect (in his 40s, 'young' by my standards), tells me it is not worth taking off the siding of an old 1883 house to add insulation and an air space to the outside.  He says the added expense is not worth the additional insulation. That the extra R-value above R 23 in walls is thermodynamically not money well spent as long as the house is very tightly constructed in the retro-fit.

 

The siding is original and in very good shape.  The interior has full dimensioned 2x4 walls.  The rooms are too small for me to want to build a double wall on the interior.

 

What he suggests I do is simply used closed cell foam between the wall framing.

 

I would appreciate your comments please.

 

Sacie

 

 

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