Here's a good energy-saving project for those who own their homes.........

[kestrel91316]

I can't do it because I rent, but I can live vicariously.

This winter, identify which room in your house gets the coldest in the winter. Then your project for the spring/summer is to insulate that room as much as humanly possible. Rip out sheetrock and put in GOOD wall insulation between the studs, replace windows, caulk, whatever you can think to make your worst problem room not a problem anymore.

Then next year and the next, keep doing the same. You won't have to do the whole house at once, which is way too expensive and intimidating for most folks. A little bit at a time, people can handle.

Post your plans and progress here to inspire others.

It's cheaper in the long run to conserve energy than it is to budget-cut so you can afford to pay for ever-more expensive energy.

[CelticWinter]

1. heres an idea for renters

although u rent try that new insulated paint---anything is better than nothing.

http://alsnetbiz.com/insulate/additive.html

[skids]

6. And another...

I'm building a couple of these. They'll come with me when I move.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=31258&mesg_id=31258

[shraby]

2. When we put vinyl siding on our house,

we left the old lap siding on (and what insulation was already there), caulked along where the laps overlapped then put the R-board on and caulked the cracks where they met then put the new siding on. We needed to replace the windows anyway so we built them out a bit because of the extra width caused by the R-board and siding. This added window sills for me.
I can turn the heat off in the morning in the winter and turn it back on between 4 and 5 in the late afternoon cause it just starts to get a bit chilly.
Not only did it insulate it good, it also cut out any street (or kids playing next door) noise to almost nothing.

[MercutioATC]

9. As an added benefit, your house is 500 sq. ft. larger now...

;)

[wakeme2008]

3. I do not know if I would start with the "coldest" room

I think I would do the most used room. My thinking is you then would heat it more than others, and so if you have to wear flannel sleepwear who cares.... (OK I like a very cold room to sleep in ) .

[pansypoo53219]

4. um, our house was built in 1926

fancy spanish plaster on every wall including ceiling. 3 HUGE windows for that time. and a attic above(12 ft ceilings to boot). we just layer. and layer, and layer and layer.

[kestrel91316]

5. You might look into the blown-in insulation for the attic.

Since you wouldn't want to ruin that original lath-and-plaster. Not sure if they could do blown-in in your walls (small holes rather than taking the plaster off altogether). It would be expensive due to the effort to preserve original construction.

[zalinda]

7. This is for renters or owners

One of the biggest heat losers is the window. I live in a house built in 1926, it is in Syracuse, NY and a 2 family. My highest heating bill for last year was just under $300, for the entire house, and there is 4 bedrooms downstairs and 3 bedrooms up. I don't think I have any insulation, since the walls are quite cold. I know I don't have any insulation in the downstairs bedroom walls since the steam pipes are in the walls and there are no radiators in those rooms. I guess they thought the pipes would radiate enough heat for those rooms. My windows are/were really bad, they all need to be re-glazed. I replaced the windows in the front of the house and the back, last year. But, on the original windows I just have plastic.

There are a couple of tricks with the plastic. First, put the plastic in the inside. Tape it onto the window molding. You can put 2 layers, one with the shrink film and then the other taped to the moldings. If you concerned with the clarity of the plastic. Go to the fabric store and buy clear vinyl. You can use the vinyl year after year, as long as you roll it up so that the vinyl doesn't touch itself, you can use paper or an old sheet. Second, check for any space between the molding and the wall, if there is any space at all you will get cold air coming through. Even if it looks only like a crack in the paint, you can get cold air through it. You can get a product call Mortite (weatherstrip and caulking cord), it will stop the air from coming through the cracks. I used this method in a house that I was renting and the gas bill decreased $50 to $100 a month.

zalinda

[skids]

8. Don't forget the curtains.

...On any windows where you have to pull the curtains during the day because the sun gets in your eyes, or on corner windows where the sunlight shoots through the room and out another window, put up black curtains or shades.

[Bamboo]

11. Panty hose on both ends,sew together.

There are kits available to cover inside windows with plastic.
Double sided tape goes around opening then plastic onto tape,trim excess and use hair dryer to shrink plastic tight.If there is a need to vent air gap then put some tape on the film and punch through tape.
http://www.acehardware.com/sm-dennis-economy-shrink-film-window-kit--pi-1289213.html

[NNadir]

10. You do realize that their is an environmental cost for this enterprise?

Sheet rock doesn't magically appear from nowhere.

It has to be manufactured and shipped. The old sheet rock must be hauled to a landfill, along with the old insulation.

In older homes there are issues of lead paint dust and possibly asbestos which is present in vermiculite insulation along with some other older types of insulation. This is especially true of homes built between 1950 and 1980, when vermiculite was widely considered a wonder material. (Vermiculite can easily be recognized by the fact it consists of small puffy nuggets, as described in this link: http://doityourself.com/home-safety/asbestosinhome.htm).

I think a matter like this is worthy of some reflection and thought, especially if one has children. In some cases, the consumerist ideal of "out with the old and in with the new" is not particularly environmental.

It is not always a good idea to keep one's home too tightly sealed, Tom Ridge's wonderful idea involving duct tape and the poison gas scare stories in the early days of the terrorist panic nowithstanding. (Tom, if you remember, was very unconcerned with oxygen depletion, since the organ most effected by hypoxia is the brain, and organ that was not of particular importance to him.) In my area, western New Jersey, it can certainly be a double edged sword to be too tightly sealed because of our problems here with radon gas. We have very high uranium loads in our soils and bedrock here.

One of the more wonderful ideas for energy conservation is to live in a smaller house. Another is to put bookcases up against the wall and fill them with books, which insulate quite well. Unlike the tight seals recommended by Tom Ridge, books are good for your brain, but only if you occassionally use them for some other purpose than as insulation.

There are certain types of insulation that can be blown into walls. I don't know very much about what it is chemically but it may be a preferable approach.