Best home insulation?

[NightShade]

I plan to build using this technique.


Best part, no need for Sheetrock.

Yeah that is one of the ones I saw. I would still sheetrock and insulate between the studs though for even more resistance to heat exchange.

As far as heart pumps they stick below a certain temp but that is where the geo thermal ones are the best. The ground two states fairly stable so it's cool in summer and warm in winter. Not to mention that cooling well be a lot cheaper than a conventional system as instead of trying to force more heat into hot air you are just pushing it in to the ground which is only going to be 55 to 60 degrees.

 

[John6185]

I built a house and wanted the foam insulation and the guy quoted me around $5,000 so I went with netting and blown-in fiberglass which was around $12,300 if I remember correctly. The guy that was going to foam would spray the foam in and use some sort of a knife to trim it flush with the 2X4's which would be like living in a styrofoam ice chest. We sold out after 11 years and moved into a larger home and it gets cold in the winter due to air leaks so we called an insulation company and they were going to charge $2,000 to vacuum all the blown-in insulation out of the attic before they sprayed the foam. Then the guy was going to build a wall around our non-efficient furnace for ventilation and spray the underside of the roof which was another $3,000. We backed out and the wife would rather sell and buy an energy efficient home elsewhere but we haven't moved yet... Oh yeah, the guy that was going to do the foam on the house I built said that his highest electric bill in the summer was $28.00 so take that with a grain of salt.

 

[rawhide]

Thanks for the responses so far. As things stand right now the house will be a 1872 sqft. with 6" exterior walls. The heat pump is recommended with foam insulation to aid in pulling moisture out of the house. I plan to have a quality zero clearance fireplace with external air source to supplement the heat pump which "feels" cold because the air is below body temperature. The builder I'm leaning toward suggested the net & blow because he thinks foam can present some hazards. From what I can find so far I'm still liking the foam. The question I haven't been able to answer is whether or not the $5500 additional cost of foam & heat pump will be recovered or how long to recover. A builder and a hvac guy I trust says do the foam & heat pump if I can afford it.

 

[doctorjj]

Thanks for the responses so far. As things stand right now the house will be a 1872 sqft. with 6" exterior walls. The heat pump is recommended with foam insulation to aid in pulling moisture out of the house. I plan to have a quality zero clearance fireplace with external air source to supplement the heat pump which "feels" cold because the air is below body temperature. The builder I'm leaning toward suggested the net & blow because he thinks foam can present some hazards. From what I can find so far I'm still liking the foam. The question I haven't been able to answer is whether or not the $5500 additional cost of foam & heat pump will be recovered or how long to recover. A builder and a hvac guy I trust says do the foam & heat pump if I can afford it.

Ask your builder if he plans on doing a blower door test and what his threshold is for air leaks. One of the main advantages to foam is that it is so forgiving with regard to all the other aspects of sealing your house. If you don’t use foam, it is hard to get the house tight.

 

[John6185]

Who cares how long the payback will be? Pay the cost and enjoy $45.00 electric bills the rest of your natural life!

 

[dennishoddy]

If im building in OK I'm doing minimum 2x8 stud framing in the walls and oversized ceiling joists to create more R-value with thicker bat insulation if that is the route i'm going. Just make sure your insulation contractor is experienced and qualified no matter what product you choose.

Our house was built with 2X6 stud walls and 2X10 in the vaulted ceiling. Even the interior walls were insulated. It's so quiet in the house from exterior noise that we have to look outside to see if its raining because we sure can't hear it.

 

[-Pjackso]

Here's my 2 cents:

INSULATION:
Insulation is not magic, nor complicated. You want the most R-value in your house.
Here's the rub - You can get the SAME R-VALUE using two difference methods: high-tech or low-tech.

High-tech approach: foam x less of it = R, with a typically higher install-costs (but you don't need as much of it, so good for 2x4 walls)
Or the low-tech approach: Fiberglass x more of it = R, with a lower install-costs. (need more of it though - so use 2x6 / 2x8 walls)
What's your main concern: Total budget? install costs? Wall thickness? Future maintenance concerns? DIY options?

Foam is the more expensive way to insulate in respects of costs of R-value per inch.
Also, once foam is sprayed, it'd be a pain to do any re-work maintenance to the house. (wiring/electrical/etc)

Note: There's different types of foam insulation.
Open-cell insulation is cheaper (as foam goes) but it'll hold water in the event of a leak. (for slow leaks that take a looong time to find - you'll utterly destroy your structure due to retained moisture.)
Closed-cell insulation is more expensive - but it won't hold water. Sealed, water proof, vapor barrier, etc...
Choose carefully.


HVAC:
I have a geo-thermal heat pump.
The heat-pumps are only about 10 years old (I had them installed new)
I WOULD NOT EVER RECOMMEND THEM AGAIN TO ANYONE.

Let me explain.
1) They work. And they do their job very well and do it quite cheap. (i.e. monthly bills are less.)
BUT
2) They are VERY SPECIALIZED units. So there's only a small handful of HVAC companies that service them. These companies typically charge more for their services. (in my experience).
3) The geo-thermal units are significantly more complicated. Read: more stuff to go wrong. See #2 above.
4) The geo-thermal units require a ground loop to be buried in the yard. MUCH MUCH MUCH higher costs to install.
AND THEN PRAY THE GROUND LOOP NEVER DEVELOPS A LEAK. The fix? It's hard as heck to find the leak (6 ft down) - so replace the ground loop.
A neighbor in our HOA had this happen to him. I think they eventually scrapped the geo-thermal, abandoned the ground loop, and installed a conventional HVAC system.


My next dream house will have super thick walls with fiberglass insulation, and a conventional HVAC unit.
There is a ton of qualified HVAC techs that can work on conventional units.

Holy smokes. Sorry about that.
I ranted a bit too much.


Best of luck!

 

[Chief Sapulpa]

When I first moved to OK in 1987, I bought a home from an architect that was properly designed for a heat pump. It had 2 x 6 inch perimeter side wall studs with Corning pink insulation and blown-in attic insulation. I really liked the air-to-air heat pump. As you know those systems have electrical resistance heating coils that kick-in when the ambient air temp gets below 32 degrees.
I also had a Lopi wood burning stove as a backup. If it wasn't freezing outside and I fired it up I've have to open the windows because it got so warm inside.
The only thing I did not like about an all electric home was the electric water heater; lengthy recovery time.

 

[mr ed]

If you buy a 95 - 98% efficient furnace instead of going the 85% cheap route you can get a big rebate check from the gas company.

 

[John6185]

This is an educational thread on insulation and has answered a lot of questions for me and I'm sure others. I have those leaky can lights in our house around 16 of them and I put those retrofit LED lights in to reduce heat plus they last longer than bulbs but still, they have the air leaks. so , I'm building styrofoam boxes out of 4X8 sheets and I'm going to put them over every can light in the attic I can reach. Only reason I'm posting this is to see if someone else has the same problem and how they solved their coolant and heat loss.