Hi all,

Power bill, outrageous lately, air conditioning kwh's mostly right now .. Florida home, built 1956, concrete block and stucco, footer'd slab on grade. Originally basically built with no insulation.

Anyhow, part of a studded north wall, about 24' worth, was moved outwards 8 feet to where a screen porch or large roof overhang was to deepen & expand the family room. Its this 8 foot side wall that needs some insulation. Not much options on the outside.. stucco.

Along this eastern facing side wall is a quite nice custom built in wall unit. Basically 7 foot tall bookcase, 8 foot wide. The interior or back wall of this bookcase is the exterior wall wood which has stucco on the outside surface ,,, wall appears to be about 1 inch thick over all.

I'm thinking I want to insulate inside all the cubby holes of that bookcase, can't take it apart, its part of the wall structure and quite complex. I'm trying to decide how to tackle insulating inside it which seems to be best option for now.

That area gets warm both inside and outside all along that section of wall/bookcase right off the bat in the mornings as the sun rises and shines on it. No real shade. Only a 16 inch gable end roof overhang shading it ,,starting about noontime anyhow.

Bookcase is made up of some cubby holes, some sliding door cupboards, etc. All are about 12.5 inches deep. Thinking I can take away approx 2" of depth and barely miss it. Might be able to take away more, not sure how things will look then. Maybe I will behind some of those closed doors, but it's mostly open front cubby holes.

Want to get the most bang I can in stopping that heat gain .. So far I'm getting confused with the more I research insulation but it looks like ..stick a bubble foil insulation onto a frame_leaving 1 inch air gap(r4.5pr radiant barrier!) to the wall & top it with 3/4 Styrofoam(r3.75) and probably 1/8th inch thin wood,, so its a nice paintable finish. So r8 round numbers plus benefits of radiant barriers, plus whatever for stucco'd wood is where that wall will be for now is my thinking.

Open to ideas.. easier,, or better heat stopping power in about 2 inches ?. Sorry writing so much,, Hope I painted a good picture...

Ideas - Suggestions ?