On Oct 15, 6:06*pm, aemeijers wrote:
wrote:
On Oct 15, 8:43 am, ransley wrote:
On Oct 14, 10:05 pm, wrote:

Live in 60 year old 1300 Sq Ft single story brick house with full *basement,
it has recent 600 Sq Ft addition with about 3' crawl space. Live in Michigan
(zone 5) and winter heating bills are a killer. My basement is very cold and
drafty in winter...in dead of winter temp check showed *around 37
degrees...I have hot water heating too by the way. The House came with newer
Anderson windows and two years ago I *blew cellulose *insulation into all
walls that were not insulated...also added about 6" in attic....so total of
about 12" of cellulose there. *Oh and I also did my best to caulk everywhere
possible in basemen last winter, but seemed not to help much.......I have
noticed that the inside walls of basement are like ice cold to the touch
too. would it be worth while to dig down a couple of feet and insulate the
outside of basement and crawl space?? If so how to do it? Any advise
appreciated...
To pinpoint air leaks and know what you need get an energy audit and
blower door test, also an IR photo. A blower door test will give you a
computer printout of air exchanges per hour and how many there should
be, the tech, with a smoke stick will show you what is leaking. 12+
cellulose in attic is not optimal in zone 5, first its likely 9"" now,
cellulose settles, but 12" is maybe R 43, optimal is near R60.www.energystar.govhas good info

That's where I would start too. *For a basement to be drafty means
there has to be large air leakage somewhere. * That is probably the
biggest problem, and until that is fixed adding insulation won't make
much difference, unless it happens to fix the leakage too. * But
better to start with finding out how air is getting in.

We've discussed all this to death on here before. Around here, there is
no way to get an energy audit/thermal camera pictures/blower door test
etc. None of the local utilities offer the service, and the local HVAC
companies just want to sell new systems. *I have looked, several times,
and I can't find a company within 100 miles to come do the site survey.
So, I have been doing seat-of-the-pants improvements based on personal
experience and discussions on here, and next on my list is to buy one of
those IR thermometer things, and start logging some data under various
sunlight and weather conditions, and hope a pattern pops out.

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aem sends...- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

You need someone that specialises in audits, My hvac co did my blower
door test, call the citys building dept or architech. You could try
your own with a big fan, fans, sealed into a door- window opening and
use something that smokes, insence sticks, the sticks that light
fireworks- " punks" , etc , Fill the holes first, An IR thermometer
isnt much help, I have one. An IR photo is help. You need to call
around, there are energy auditors everywhere, 100 miles isnt much.