We had insulation blown into the walls of our home about 20 years ago. It was expensive then, but we thought worth it. However, I am certain it has settled over time. I noticed my bedroom is very chilly this winter. When it's 15 out, I noticed the wall of that room is notioceably cold. I think the insulation settled and has lost some of its effectiveness. My house is about 1200 sq feet.

First thing we did was get rid of the heat pump. I didn't like the fact that it blew cold air out of the registers!! "Well it takes the heat out of the atmosphere and condenses it and blows it into your house." How pray tell, does it blow heated air into my house when it's 20* outside? "Well, it has heat coils that supplement the warm air it extracts from the atmosphere" Went to natural gas and haven't been disappointed yet. We just blew in about 8" into the attic a couple of weeks ago to get it up to an R-30 so it's too soon to tell, but I know it will make a big difference. We also had them replace the old aluminum clad windows with new double pane vinyl clads and THAT made a big difference! The old aluminum frames transfer the cold inside. They have a way of taking the old panes out and putting new ones in and then putting a vinyl tape over them so they match the new windows. Getting the panes replaced is a whole lot cheaper than getting the whole unit replaced. We have stucco on the house and didn't want to have to tear the stucco away from the windows to remove the whole unit. Call several window places and ask for bids. You may be surprised. Also call the insulation place and get bids. If your house has a crawl space, you need to look at that and see if it is insulated under the floor. Good luck, I'm with you, I HATE to be cold in my own house!

Yes, we did about 3 years ago and it made a huge difference in the heating bill. We onlyhad it blown in the attic. It took about an hour, so they really laid it on thick.
Our electric company gave us a rebate of 1/2 the cost of the job, so out of pocket was around $150. Well worth the money.
Our house was built in 1957.

Trin

You also might consider a product that's blown into the attic space, but to the underside of the roof, as well as onto the walls of the attic space. It's a soy product that expands then hardens. It really fills in the little gaps that allow hot air out of your house. It's been featured on a couple of HGTV home improvement shows. We're thinking of having it done to our house, but we know we're going to put a new roof on within a couple of years, so we're going to wait until then.

Trin, how did you go about finding someone to blow it in? I am thinking we need it done at this house.

Moni

It settles...

When adding blown-in insulation to the attic space (under the roof), one should consider installing spacers along the perimenter where the rafters rest on the headers. The purpose of these spacers is to keep the insulation from touching the roof boards and to insure a vent space along the eaves.

When my house was built (1976), the blown insulation installers piled the insulation to the specfied depth, did not install spaers, but pulled the insulation away whereever ti threatened to touch the roof. If I were to add insulation, I would specify the spacers and then the installers have more freedom to pile the insulation thick along the outer edges.

After additional insulation, the next best payback is reducing wind leakage. If I ever re-side my house, wind proofing and extra external insulation will be ordered.

In a 2-storey house, one place the wind sneaks in is at the joist space for the second storey floor. Sometimes, the header is not fully closed, particularily where the outside wall has a jog in or out. The wind can enter and blow between the upper floor and the loser ceiling. I had one of these that would freeze water pipes when the wind was in the right direction. (Had to cut a hole in the wall to patch this leak.)

When its light outside, cover the basement windows and turn out all the basement lights. And then, carefully look along the top edge of the basement. Small openings can be spotted by looking for specs of light from the outside. Places that are sometimes missed by builders are spaces under the sills of doors that open to the outside. These spaces are easily sealed with expanding foam.

Look at the sump pump outlet pipe where it goes through the wall. Often, this is nothing more than a pipe in a hole and is not sealed. Seal the outside with flexible, weather-proof, long life, caulking.

In my house, the 3 largest heat loosers are two big bay windows on the front of the house and a full width, sliding patio door at the rear. The botom side of the bay window boxes did not have any insulation. It was just 5/8 inch thickness of wood between the inside and outside. I cemented foam insulation to the bottom side. The same situation exists at the top of these window boxes, but these are inacessible because these are jammed tight against the soffets. The glass is sealed, double paned glass, but that is too poor for todays needs. Switching to low-E sealed glass can reduce these loses. These bay windows have no storm window coverings. Also, the height of these windows are excessive. My best solution would be to replace these bay window units with higer effecient designs and reduce the height of the glass to about 2/3 of what they are now.

Another place to reduce heat loss that is easy to do and low cost is to insulate the headers in the basement. Friction fit, fiber-glass bats work here. Use a breathing mask and protective gloves when working with fiber glass or any other fiberous bat materials.

I bought the honeycomb type windows shades for every window in my house. You can get custom ones, which cost quite a bit more, or you can get them at Home Depot type stores. THey are a double layer shade that has a honeycomb type design.

Mine fit inside the window frame.

I can tell quite a temp difference when I walk by a window that has one pulled up. They are great in the summer also.

Try a programmable thermostat. When you are gone during the day, and asleep at night, drop the temp.

I normally keep my house at 65º during the day. I do warm it up some for the evening when everyone is home (70º if I am feeling generous, lol) and drop it down to 62º at bedtime. I do like a cool house though.

Moni,
The electric company sent a flyer with the bill one month, and we called several companies in the phone book and found one to our liking. The electric company approved them and sent them half the money upon completion.

Trin

Some people in out town had theres done a couple of years ago. It was some kind of stuff that was kind of wet then drys harder and fluffy. Any way it got into on electrical wire and shorted it out causing a fire. The house was so bad they had to take it down.