PipeDown wrote:
"Stubby" wrote in message
. ..

My heat bills are about twice what neighbors pay in similar houses. And, I
get ice dams. So it seems there is heat leaking up into the attic. I
have soffit vents and a ridge vent. So I called 3 insulation contractors.
One said the 6" that is in the attic between the 2x4 joists is fine and
that adding more won't make a big difference. Two others wanted to add
another 6" of cellulose. Pink stuff is more expensive and doesn't fill
nooks and crannies as well.

My walls have 2" insulation which was standard back in 1970 when the house
was built. I replaced all the windows with double pane vinyl windows.
That was years ago and it did make a difference. I have a large aluminum
frame slider that I cover with film for insulation.

I'm hesitant to spend $1600 on additional insulation if it isn't going to
do anything. Can anyone suggest what is causing the heat loss?
Thanks.


2X the neighbors. Maybe you have a leak in a heating duct and you are
pumping warm air diectly into the attic. A little duct tape and some duct
insulation might give you a bigger bang for the buck. Go up on a cold day
while the heat is running and look for a duct leak. This would cause
massive inefficiency and ice damming, mimicing heat loss through insulation.

If you do not have forced air heat with ducts in the attic, disregard this
advice.

Right. I have forced hot water in baseboard heaters around the edge of
the house.

However, there is an analagous situation to a leaking hot air duct. I
used to have hydronic heating with hot water circulating through a
copper pipe embedded in the concrete house slab. It was great heat but
(a) after 30 years the lime in the concrete ate pinholes through the
copper and (b) in 1970 they couldn't care less about energy and builders
didnot put styrofoam insulation under the slab. So, I was doing my
part of globe warming! Some people lose hot water from their heating
systems. It costs a lot and they don't know it's happening. But I'm
not losing heat that way anymore because I abandoned the hydronic system
and installed a baseboard loop.