[00:00:00] Are rooms in your home different temperatures or cold and drafty? You may need to do a checkup on your insulation.
[00:00:08] Welcome to the your Energy Footprint podcast, where we cover easy ways to lower your energy bill and other ways to make your home more sustainable, with a few energy industry highlights sprinkled in. Hi, I'm Robin Sydoff and I've been in the energy industry for the past 20 years in both utilities and power generation, and I'll explain everything you need to know for some quick wins in your home to become more sustainable and save some money. Now let's dig in.
[00:00:33] Do you know the condition of the insulation in your home? The best way to find out is by checking out your utility's website to request an energy audit of your home. These are typically free or at low cost. It may include free led bulbs, weather stripping or ceiling windows and doors, and other small projects around your home that can really make a difference, and it's hard to beat free. Even if you do have to pay something, you'll likely make up for it in these small projects around your house.
[00:01:01] One of the things I learned as an engineer is if it looks like there's a problem, then there's usually a problem. If you have to wait for an audit for any reason, it's worthwhile to walk around your home and see what you find. Insulation can last from 30 to 100 years, depending on the type, but if it comes out of place or is damaged by mice or water, then it will impact its effectiveness. Also, if it's older than ten years, it might not meet the current guidelines for insulation. Now that doesn't mean that you need to run out and replace it, but it might be time to think about if it's been damaged as well. If your house generally feels cold and drafty in the winter or hot in the summer, then you may benefit from adding insulation.
[00:01:43] When we bought our current home, our home inspector caught a few things that were honestly very obvious. The pull down ladder in the attic had a broken spring, so it was hard to pull down and get back up. But more importantly, there was a gap where the door didn't fully close when it was shut. This is important because hot air rises, so heat from inside was going up into the attic and straight through the roof. It may be hard to quantify these things, but have you ever gotten a big surprise on your water bill after you've had a leaking faucet or toilet? This probably depends on the cost of water where you live, but I'm sure any listeners in California can relate the second really obvious thing that he found was that the HVAC duct in the attic wasn't connected. It looked like somehow the duct was two or three inches shorter than it needed to be to connect. I'm not sure how this came to be, but that's definitely heating the attic and all that heat is going straight through the roof. Of course, we addressed both of these items as soon as we could after we moved in, and in case anyone is wondering, these costs don't impact the savings on our electric bill, since our house currently uses fuel oil for our heat source. We did have insulation on our attic floor at the time our home audit was done, but it was likely degraded as our house was built in the 70s. After all, the primary recommendation from the audit was to insulate our attic, which is typically a great cost effective recommendation. The company that did our audit was actually a third party company contracted by our utility to provide the audit service on their behalf. It is a general rule of thumb to always get three quotes when you have work done, which I do recommend. In this case, I chose not to, however, because first I was busy with working kids and had just moved. The other factor that I considered was the utility should do a thorough evaluation of each subcontractor in order for them to be part of the program. There may also be predetermined rates that they're allowed to charge as part of this service. Clearly, I would recommend verifying these assumptions, but sometimes life happens. The offer also included handling all of the rebates upfront and filing the paperwork for us, which reduced our upfront cost and definitely made it easier.
[00:03:55] One reason you may not want to go this route is if the contractor won't complete all of the insulation that you need for us, we had two to three other places that could have used insulation that aren't connected to our attic and would require poking holes to spray foam or cutting a hole to blow in insulation.
[00:04:12] I got a quote from another company, but I would have paid a hefty premium because the jobs were small and there was a minimum charge. It would have been more cost effective potentially to get one company to do everything.
[00:04:25] Whatever you can do does help your utility bills though, so don't hold off if you're not doing everything at once.
[00:04:32] Unfortunately, because we had this work done so quickly after we moved in, I don't have any before and after data. I'll link an energy Star article in the show notes where it references an EPA estimate that you can save 15% on average on heating and cooling cost by sealing air leaks and adding insulation in the attic floors, over the crawl spaces and in basements. And this is something that the energy audit will address. Once your attic is insulated, you really shouldn't walk on the insulation.
[00:05:02] Walking on it can move it, making gaps and compressing it. You should make a plan for adding plywood or something similar on top for areas you may need to walk around or to make a spot for storage.
[00:05:15] But what if you don't have an accessible attic to blow insulation into? You will likely want to consult with a few different companies for your options on blown in insulation and spray foam insulation because the insulation will be right below your roof and any roof leaks or moisture can be trapped, impacting the insulation's effectiveness but also allowing mold to grow while making it difficult to identify. I would absolutely recommend consulting a few companies so that you can learn from different points of view and better understand the pros and cons.
[00:05:47] While we're on the topic of insulation, I just wanted to mention that there are also benefits from insulating your air ducts that deliver the hot and cold air around the house as well as hot water pipes. You don't have to go around ripping all your walls out though there is value in insulating what's exposed and that you can see.
[00:06:05] That's it for today. Will you check out your utility's website to sign up for a home energy audit? Check the show notes for a link to the Energy Star website on insulating your attic. If there are any topics you would like me to cover in future episodes, please reach out and let me know. You can email me directly at
[email protected] or find me on Instagram at yourenergy footprint. On next week's episode, we'll talk about the issues I have with how solar installers estimate the savings stated in their proposals. If you enjoyed today's podcast, please rate and review it on your favorite app to help more listeners find us. I really appreciate it. Our mission at your energy footprint is to educate consumers on ways you can be more energy efficient at home, as well as how to make significant investments like solar while saving money. You can find more information on our courses for homeowners interested in installing rooftop solar on our website ww dot yourenergyfootprint.com. Com. All of our information is unbiased and based on my 20 years of experience working for utilities and as a renewable developer, we are not affiliated with any installers.
