The house my wife and I own (Double) was built in 1930. We plan on turning it into a full income property in the next couple years.
I have owned the house for 5 years and placed considerable amount of money into the place
New entrance doors to the outside
28 new windows
Brand new tear off roof
Hot water tank
newer appliances
glass block windows within basement
spray in foam along the top layer of basement and full insulation under crawl space.
energy efficient curtains
draft stoppers on doors
Upcoming plans
spray in foam within the light and switch sockets that are on the walls that are the perimeter of the house - feeling a draft through the sockets.
higher efficient furnaces since the ones I have currently are from 1995.
It seems like I never do enough to try and retain as much heat inside the house this is efficient and cost saving. We have raised our normal house temperature due having a 6 month old infant.
How do people with older houses try to save on energy but at the same time, have a warm house?
I am not interested in tearing down all the plaster walls to have blown insulation since this will be an income property
My walls have the older foam insulation that was used in the 70’s and has since shrink. When I remolded the room (the addition), that stuff made a mess. I had to break it up in pieces to place it in garbage bags. If I didn’t have anything in the walls, I would have no problem getting the blown in stuff.
Have you had a home energy audit done? It sounds like you may already be reaching the point of diminishing returns. With all the work you’ve already done it’s probably time to have a professional come in and see where the remaining issues are. I doubt replacing perfectly working furnaces that were installed in 1995 is going to “save” you money for at least 10 years. Natural gas is cheap and unlikely to be going up any time soon so that makes it even harder to get a ROI.
don’t bother. if you want to do something focus on air sealing. By far the biggest bang for the buck and will improve comfort as well. spray foam around outlets is a good plan. just be careful not to overdo it and blow out plaster and crush things.
past that if you still want to do something attic insulation will by far be the biggest inexpensive improvement (assuming you live on the second floor.) Best part is you can buy thick batts and lay them on the floor (or between joists if you don’t have an attic floor) and then you can take it with you to the next place when you leave.
I hate when people put foam around switches and outlets. It makes me want to kick a puppy. That is from a different perspective though, you are welcome to come chisel out the 5 outlets that I have to replace and are nicely hardened into the box with foam.
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Also, lol at taking the insulation with you. Epic.
Yes I had an energy audit last year with the assistance of the Green Group in Buffalo. Nothing major needed to be done because we replaced the windows from the early 80s. Furnaces were tested and the one I use is around 95% efficient and the other one is in the low 80%.
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I live on the first floor - reason i had insulation work done in the attic. What are some of things I can do that focuses on air sealing? (ex: plastic around windows?)
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I am planing to update the outlets and switches before I spray in there.
Then replacing those working furnaces is just pissing money away. Wait for a major part to fail. Gain a little in efficiency is going to be impossible to make up in your gas bills vs the price of a new furnace.
spray around / behind the boxes, not inside of them. Crazy to me that someone would do that lol
Do your windows have original trim? If so you probably have empty window weight boxes around all your windows that are awful for efficiency, they leak air and aren’t insulated. Hard to fix though unless you’re really careful and nothing is painted.
Probably not worth addressing really.
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why not? probably a few hundred bucks of insulation and why even bother if its going to be a rental in a couple years
would only take an hour to load up on moving day lol. I could tell him to spray foam his joists and put in a radiant barrier but that just doesn’t make any sense considering the circumstances
If you’re going to be renting it to people I wouldn’t bother trying to make it more efficient. People don’t stay forever who cares what they’re paying for gas, unless you plan to pay for it.
+1 to @Wahoo. If you’re going full income property and tenants are going to pay utilities, then why are you so worried about energy efficiency? Sinking money into “feel good about myself” projects are the exact types of things that make you lose money in the investment property world.
The only way I was going to do the furnaces is if there will be some type of tax credit in 2015. I am trying to make this place self sufficient as much as possible so when I leave, I could sleep better and not worry about tenants calling me. Also, I am always under the impression that if I call in the winter time for a furnance because it can’t be repaired will probably cost more to replace than buying a new one in spring/summer.
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I do have original trim but I hoped that when Clever did my windows and if they saw those weight boxes, they would have asked me and gave me an estimate in getting rid/insulating them. I guess I would assume I don’t have them anymore
Thanks for bringing this up because I was just going to spray that stuff within the electrical boxes. I think you saved me from making a big mistake by giving me this advice. I will probably do this in the spring now since this project will take time and gets dark early.
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I am trying to find ways for my wife to stop nagging me about how it feels cold in certain rooms. I hate hearing this crap everyday because I thought I did a pretty good job addressing this by all the things that have been completed in 5 years.
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When I drive by your house 4 days a week, I am always like, I wish I had your garage/buildings
If the issue is comfort you have a few different variables to account for- air temperature, velocity, humidity and radiation.
depending on the balance of these factors you could be totally happy or miserable. For example you could have 2 identical rooms but 1 has many more windows. Although every other factor is equal the additional glazing in the 1 room will likely make it feel cooler due to radiation.
what is different about the rooms that seem too cold?
I am getting foam sprayed on the roof at work. I figure why not just coat the entire exterior? The neighbors may not like it but who cares? It will be like an igloo cooler.
people always seem to ignore the obvious stuff. Many houses here have basements. Basements are almost always uninsulated. What steps have you taken to take care of that? Step one would be to stuff insulation around the perimeter where the woof meets your foundation. This is often a major air leak and it is really easy for you to do yourself. If insulating the foundation walls is not needed in your application then you may think about insulating the 1st floor floor joist. Again it is very easy and cheap to do and can make a world of difference by keeping your floor warmer on the first level of your home.
I insulated a portion of the flooring in my house last summer and the change in how the rooms retain heat is significant in my application. Also note that I do not have a basement, I have a crawl space which tends to be very cold.
Seems others have beaten me to it, but putting ANYTHING in an electrical box other than approved electrical components is a big no no. That’s a fire waiting to happen.
They make foam cutouts that go between the receptacle/switch and the cover. Those are allowed because they do not contact exposed energized parts.
