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bobrok
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# Posted: 4 May 2011 06:23pm
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We just had a professional whole-house energy audit done on our residence. Not the cabin, but it would be easy to apply anything learned to the other place as well and I wanted to ask if anyone has ever gone through an audit after-the-fact of your build just to see how well you did in constructing your place.
OPur audit was a massive four-hour long encounter with an extremely knowledgeable man who came equiped with test probes, infrared camera, whole house pressurizer-blower, etc.
When I set up the appointment I asked if I could follow him around to learn and absorb everything I could. No problem and he thanked me afterwards because it made his job easier by not having to sit us down afterwards and gloss over so many details that our brains started spinning. By following him around and asking pertinent questions as we ran through each test we were able to keep a running four hour commentary all about energy efficiency and current state of the art design and insulating techniques.
It will be a couple of weeks before our results are officially presented to us. I pretty much know what will be in the report since I watched the entire process, but I have to say how amazed I was, especially at the live infrared shots.
And I thought we were pretty tightly insulated! Wrong.
Has anyone else ever done this?
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farfromhome
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# Posted: 5 May 2011 08:45am
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We had an energy audit done about three years ago. We followed the recommendations in the energy audit report except for two. (one was for a pull down latch on the attic hatch and for a tankless water heater. We did the following changes to the house; new basement windows, foam insulation in the basement and floors, high efficiency furnance and air conditioner, insulated front and back door, insulated fiberglass garage door and foam sealing under the baseboards. The purpose was to obtain the government eco energy rebates. It was well worth it. From a cabin perspective put in good windows, doors and ensure there is sufficient insulation in the floor and walls.
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bobrok
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# Posted: 5 May 2011 11:37am
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thanks farfromhome,
I'm going to learn a lot from this, but the first thing I wanted to bring up here for opinion is something I'd not heard of before: it's called 'dense pack insulation' and while there has been much discussin here about spray foam insulation I don't recall and can't find anyone referring to dense pack insulation.
It seems to fly in the face of everything old school I've learned about insulation, but I can't wait to learn more.
Has anyone used this?
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MtnDon
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# Posted: 5 May 2011 02:47pm
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Dense pack refers to wet blown in cellulose. It is blown into the wall cavities before the interior drywall or whatever is installed. It is blown with a water spray along with the cellulose. Sometimes a binding agent (glue) is added to the water. It is a pro install, not DIY. A certain density, pounds of cellulose per cu ft, must be achieved. A well trained installer gets the cellulose packed into all the nooks and crannies, behind all the electrical boxes, etc. From what I've seen locally well installed wet blown cellulose beats all of the most careful fiberglass batt installations.
There is a bit of a cleanup after it's done. The installer should look after that. The installer also has to measure the moisture content and issue a "pass" document before interior drywall, etc is applied.
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bobrok
Member
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# Posted: 5 May 2011 03:08pm
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Thank you, MtnDon. As usual, you are always very informed and informative.
They are evidently also using this method to supplement insulation gaps on existing construction around here. As least that is what they lead me to believe; as in filling settling gaps, voids found by thermal imaging, etc. And it is supposed to be better than foam for R-value.
I can't wrap my brain around the squashing down existing cellulose or rockwool insulation when applying this. It's two dissimilar materials in the same wall cavity and I don't see how it adds value to the existing loose fill because it was not intended to be dense-packed originally.
As I've said I'll know more when the report is presented and they offer solutions. I was thinking this is a great way to reinforce existing insulation w/o removing and replacing, but that was before you just mentioned the PRO-install. I guess that leaves me out. It would have been a great way to take care of cabin leaks.
Thanks for posting. Pics are a great way of showing in practice.
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soundandfurycabin
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# Posted: 5 May 2011 03:42pm - Edited by: soundandfurycabin
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Dense-pack usually refers to dry blown-in cellulose, either into existing walls or behind netting or a tough vapor barrier in new construction. The wet-spray method is a professional job, but you can buy bags of cellulose and rent the blower to install it dry. I think that could be an option with new construction where you can see if you've left any gaps around pipes, below windows, etc. For blowing into existing walls behind drywall, it would probably be best to rely on a professional with the experience to reach the difficult spots.
If an existing wall already has loose-fill cellulose, the added dense-pack cellulose will just squeeze it down to the same high density as if it had been installed as dense-pack to begin with. I don't think the cellulose used for loose fill is any different from that used for dense-pack. If an existing wall has batt insulation, it usually gets compressed flat against the wall surface and no longer adds much insulation value.
A few videos showing how it's done...
http://www.jlconline.com/cgi-bin/jlconline.storefront/4dc3001500c6f31727170a32100a05c f/UserTemplate/71?s=4dba7c04116792c027170a32100a066a&c=f84b8d375e8ce3b8d610549489e65b 34
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