Might try installing an energy sufficent hotwater heater. We replaced ours and the electric bill has gone down! Also, replace your light bulbs with energy bulbs... and whatever you are not using, unplug. I have been doing this for the last five months... unplugging the television system, computer, coffee pot, non-answering machine telephones... think about the energy that a dvd player or computer utilizes if not being used? there's a little light still on both systems... A few helpful hints. Good luck.
Nicole,
Backtracking - I came back to the top to apologize for how long this got!
I'm a little late in responding - I was in the hospital for surgery.
My husband researched radiant barrier and decided to do it himself over the winter. He ordered about 5 to 6 rolls of the foil insulation (foil/plastic bubble layer/foil - about 1/4 inch thick) and did it himself. He stapled it to the bottom of the rafters (am I getting this right? I'm not the engineer - he is) and left the area between the rafters as a passageway for the hot air to get out of the attic. Now the inside of the attic looks very high tech. (Email me if you want to know more detail on how he did this. Your DH might want to talk to my DH)
He also redistributed some of the very very poorly distributed blown in insulation. The last two feet around the perimeter of the house (where a normal person wouldn't be able to see it from the attic entrances) didn't have any insulation at all. No wonder the south facing master would get so hot in the winter and the two bedrooms on the north would be freezing!
While he was up in the attic he found two vents that were poorly connected so the air was leaking into the attic. Also, he found a leak near the chimney - it was not properly flashed in one spot. Huh!
After he put in the RB we hardly had to run the heater the rest of the winter.
Here's more info that goes beyond the RB. Skip it if you don't have time to read...
He also researched geothermal heatpumps. And we bought one on ebay and he had 5 wells drilled and is in the process of hooking it up to the house. He will be improving the ridiculous duct system (looks like a drunk octopus right now). (We have 2 1/2 acres, so had room for the welldiggers to get in there and mess around in the dirt)
The old AC/heater system will go out in the shop and be used sporadically when we do shop type things. DH says that the AC is filthy and he's surprised we're not all sicker than dogs all the time. We are also installing an electrostatic air cleaner to help with my allergies.
We've definitely overspent our budget on this house! Hope we don't have to move soon so the savings in energy costs can help us recoup some of this money! LOL
Other dreams and plans: we upped the capacity of the heating/cooling system since we enclosed the back porch and vented into the garage so we can use it as a workshop. Also, we got a hot tub from a family member and we're going to heat that with the heat pump also.
We dream on...
This is way more than you asked for, but sometimes it's fun to know what others are doing.
Oh, one of the things that I did last summer before all the upgrading started is I bought some insulated drapes from WalMart. They sell them for about $17 or $25 depending on the width you buy.
Feel free to respond and ask about specific price. My DH has that all in the files.
Aleta
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