Go to the Palms and Cycads forum and check out the way a poster named Artictropical overwinters great big palms in zone 4 Utah using styrofoam boxes and cfc lightbulbs for warmth. He has posted a lot of pictures on several threads. Extremely impressive. This method should be adaptable to a lot of plants and situations. The key to it seems to be the use of extremely thick, high R-value foamboard, sealed pretty tightly -- you can use a fairly low amount of heat as long as you trap it very efficiently.

LOL! Worthy. we all know people justify their decisions. whether they be good, bad or lateral moves. as with many things, there is more than one way to achieve the same or similar end. to me, it is ALL about the accuracy of the inputs. I can't mislead the homeowner who hires me with false entries to achieve the numbers he/she wants to see...because when it doesn't happen..my reputation is on the line. in my rural area, word travels fast. do someone right they tell 10 people, do someone wrong..they tell 50 people. this is why so many get into this business & only last a year or two. for myself & my colleagues that trained together & are still in business, these are our ethics. we are all glad that your utility bills are low david cary. don't think we can agree that florida doesn't need heat, or that foam sheathing & foam sealed unvented attics don'thave a lot to do with performance, efficinency & savings. not that this is the route for everyone, but for someone trying to make choices there needs to be unbiased, experience proven information. so that this poster can weigh the information and make his choices. building sciences link to building a perfect wall. http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-001-the-perfect-wall?searchterm=perfect+wall+construction it doesn't get better than this for the cost. best of luck

I guess you have an unfinished basement. Depending on how much space you have, you could use one of the high efficiency polystyrene boards - I'm a huge fan of ISOboard, it's got a very high R-value per inch. I'm not sure if it's rated for direct contact with hvac ducting - heat makes plastics brittle over time (which is why we put a pad of insulation between electrical wires and hvac and dryer ducts. If it's tighter, convention would be to use ordinary wall-type insulation, and tuck it between floor and duct. Better yet would be to use Rockwool which is used between floors for soundproofing and fire-rating. It's much more dense. As an additional layer, you could use the mylar foil-bubble wrap stuff immediately under the floor (again, I don't think it's rated for duct contact, I don't know. It's reflective, so combined with one of the others it might help. I've heard bamboo flooring can be a problem with low humidity, have you checked your humidity levels? I'd also talk to the manufacturers of the flooring and check what they say about installation. If your ducting is correctly installed and not leaking (you should wrap the joints with the appropriate foil (not 'duct tape') then the flooring should not do that.

Insulating the walls is not possible with rigid foam due to the uneveness of the foundation. As mentioned, it is composed of lose rock, think stone wall, and a bad one at that, topped with 1 course of concrete block. There is probably a 4 inch variation. I actuallty considered doing it myslef with 15 Mil VB from Raven Industries. I even went so far to look into plastic friction type plugs (think automotive trim clips) that I could push into predrilled holes in the concrete block to hold the VB against the wall. The problem is I have lots of utilities and a sump in the space and need to access it often, with tools. Tools will puncture 6mil poly. Also, I have poly in another crawlspace in my house, and trying to crawl around on it is frustrating as it moves. Since the Cleanspce product is warrantied for 25 years, I can get them to repair it. Plus, the product is white, and will make the space much brighter, and easier to work in. I already put 2" foam board in between the joists. I did not find it very effective, but then, it was an vented space. Now, it will be a nonvented space.