Best home insulation?

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Aries

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Shadowrider

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I told and told my sister to have a plumber run a gas line and go gas heat and conventional AC when she replaced her system a couple of years ago. But she swallowed the sales spiel on heat pumps hook, line and sinker and bought the latest, greatest green wonder. AC works great. Heat? She freezes to death even with electric backup and she hates it. I try to rub it in every chance I get.

The only way I'd have a heat pump is if it were geothermal and that pretty much limits you to new construction for the most part. My inlaws have it and along with the solar panels their electric bill is never over $40. It's a very viable option.

For insulation I'd go with plain old pink Owens Corning fibreglass. It's cheap so blowing in a little more in 5 years or so isn't really an issue. I'd probably do foam in the walls as long as I never planned on running any network cable or additional wiring.
 

Tanis143

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If you go the foam route for your walls, have the electricians put in some blank j-boxes with conduit going into the attic if possible. I would do this for every outside wall. While you don't want a cable or network line ran right now, things change. Once they spray the foam the only way to put one in is to drill through the brick from the outside.

I've been in a few houses that have done the spray foam for both walls and roof. The attic was completely sealed and was almost the same temp as the house. This is great for insulation, but as stated you will need some fresh air intake and exhaust as CO2 building can happen.
 

SlugSlinger

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Go ICF blocks, gas heat with radiant floor heating and 18 seer AC. I have a neighbor with the setup and his highest energy bill is ~$80 year round in a 3500 sq^2 house.
 

stick4

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Have a split mini system in the two car garage that I use for my business and it makes all the heat I want at 20° outside temp and will try to make heat down to 10°. (Use portable propane ventless if it gets that cold)
The mini split is a 12.5K btu and has an SEER of 20. Uses about 800 watts heating. Not sure on the watts when cooling.
 

doctorjj

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Spray foam is the only way to go. I’ve done a ton of research on this. I would cathedralize the attic. Make sure you use closed cell or a vapor barrier in the attic. I personally would go with closed cell in the cathedralized portion. Open cell in the walls is fine. If you go staggered stud, there is no reason for foam panels on the outside and they would actually probably be a bad idea as the wall can’t dry to the inside or the outside then. With staggered studs you don’t have to worry about thermal bridging so the rigid foam outside isn’t necessary. And you will also want a whole home energy and humidity recovery ventilation system. I would highly recommend getting a blower door test done before you button everything up. That’s more important than the insulation.
 

mr ed

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If you use the pink stuff it will settle in 4-5 years and you will notice you bills go up.
In 2 of my houses they blew in some white stuff that that seems much denser than the pink.
I had occasion to climb into one of the attics last month and after 15 years it had not settled and was still 2 feet deep.
 

doctorjj

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If you use the pink stuff it will settle in 4-5 years and you will notice you bills go up.
In 2 of my houses they blew in some white stuff that that seems much denser than the pink.
I had occasion to climb into one of the attics last month and after 15 years it had not settled and was still 2 feet deep.
None of the blow in fiberglass performs very well when the temps get low (when you need it the most). Oak Ridge Labs did some studies on it. Needs to be capped with a couple inches of cellulose to retain its R value when extremely cold.
 

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