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February 03, 2006
Heating the outdoors
You never really appreciate the meaning of this until you've had to pay the energy bill for a leaky, drafty old house. I meant to post about our energy inspection (30 Jan), but have just been far too busy with school to do so.
The bad news is that we failed, miserably; however, this is also good news. How so? The way the energy efficiency rebate program works, the lower our initial rating and the higher our final rating, the higher our federal and provincial rebates will be. The inspector guesstimated that the house is in the mid 20s for efficiency (67 is supposed to be the ideal for a house this age). With some work, we should be able to get up into the 60s (without having to reinsulate the exterior walls on the main and second floors).
The three main areas of leakage were the basement windows/walls, the point at which the sill plate and joists meet the foundation, and the main & second floor windows. We're planning on insulating the basement walls with rigid styrofoam insulation (no fiberglass because of the chance of moisture) and will replace the basement windows. We'll likely use fiberglass at the foundation line, and will re-seal all points at which the services (i.e., gas) enter the house. The main & second floor windows are newer, but improperly installed. Lots and lots of caulking and expanding foam should solve their leakage issues (especially considering that its the areas around the windows that are leaking, not the windows, themselves).
We won't get the actual report for six to eight weeks, but we've got a pretty good idea, at present, about what needs to be done. Now we just need to find the time to do all of it.
Posted by plainstext at February 3, 2006 11:11 PM
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