Unexpected Savings Part 1 & 2 (Badger Retrofit)

Unexpected savings
By Karl Monetti
Chapter 1

I once owned a home on Badger Road that had been built in 1954. I moved into it in 1974 and lived there for 18 years. The original home was 24’X40’ with a full basement for about 1900 sq. ft living space. The house was 2X4 frame construction typical of the era, with poor insulation, no vapor barrier, and exposed concrete in the daylight basement. Over the years I had stripped the whole place from the inside, one room at a time and upgraded the insulation and vapor barrier as best I could. I also had added 12 inches of blown cellulose to the attic. We were using about 1700 gallons of heating oil yearly

In 1987 I added a two story 30’X40’ addition with a partial basement for a total of 3000 sq. ft., bringing the whole house to 4900 sq. ft. This addition was of 2X8 construction with a 12 thick roof, had a much tighter air/vapor barrier and no exposed basement.

Three years prior to the addition I had built a small commercial building. That building was fiberglass-insulated 2X6 frame construction with 6 inches of closed cell foam on the exterior, 24 inches of blown cellulose in the trusses, and a 3 foot thick earthen berm around the whole perimeter. It had 3300 sq. ft. of office space with a full basement under it, and it only used 1500 gallons of fuel oil yearly, so I had learned that insulation is my friend.

It turned out I had just enough closed cell exterior foam insulation left over to cover the three sides of the old house. (The fourth side was butted against the addition.) I knew if I wrapped the old house in 6 inches of foam I would use less fuel to heat it, but had no idea how much, and that is a very important thing to know when considering financing such a project; is it going to be worth it???

I had gained enough expertise to apply the, by myself. Anyway, the foam system, known as R-Wall back then (there are different brand names available now) was already paid for and I knew how to put it on, so I stripped off all the old siding and exterior sheathing and firred out the whole exterior with horizontal 1X4 on 2 foot centers. I then ran all new wiring on the outside of the house in the spaces between the firring strips. This allowed me to re-wire the whole place without damaging the interior walls at all!

Next I put on a layer of exterior sheetrock, then glued the foam on and applied the fiberglass mesh embedded in epoxy resin. (I have since learned that 2-4 inches of closed cell foam would be enough for most retrofit applications, but my stuff was 6 inches thick). I extended the foam down over the exposed concrete foundation and into the ground 1 foot. I left the cosmetic finishing and color application to the pros, and ended up with a very nice looking ranch with a two story addition.

The best part of it all, besides all the room for the growing family, was the fuel consumption; we went from 1900 sq. ft to almost 5000 sq. ft. and still only used 1750 gallons of heating oil a year!

We almost tripled the size of the space we were heating and still used the same amount of fuel. We had essentially lowered our fuel bill on the old house by two thirds. Had we just done the retrofit on the house, the cost of the renovations would have been about $8000 (minus the electrical upgrade). We would have saved 1000 gallons of fuel yearly for an annual savings of about $1100. That equals an 8 year payback at 1987 fuel prices, which hovered around $1.10/gallon.

Similar external foam retrofits today would cost in the range of $12,000 to $15,000 for the same sized home. At today’s fuel costs of $3.75/gallon, if we could even save 500 gallons of fuel yearly, that would be $1875 yearly for a 6-8 year payback. And, from that point on, you continue to save that money the rest of the time you occupy the building.

 
Chapter 2

Exterior foam application is just one of the energy retrofit options we will be covering in our televised programs. Another is replacing older boilers with newer, more efficient ones.

The day before I closed on the sale of the house in 1997, the boiler died (Murphy woke up a day too soon) and I had to put in a new boiler. I called the new owner today and she told me (from her records) she used an average of 1285 gallons the following years. That is almost 500 gallons less than I had used on the old boiler. Priced at $1.10/gal., the $550 annual savings would have paid off the cost of the boiler installation ($3500) in just 7 years.

One of the great things about a boiler replacement is the relative ease and quickness and lack of disruption of living space required for the change-over. Current state-of-the-art boilers are quite a bit more efficient than anything available even 15 years ago, so it is a good bet your home may benefit from such a project.

Again, knowing the potential savings makes it easier to determine if a retrofit of any scope or magnitude makes economic sense for you. Sure, saving energy will help the environment, but few of us can do that if it means not being able to live the way you have become accustomed. It needs to be affordable. One thing we all realize these days is current energy prices are NOT affordable, and for many of us that means the difference between staying warm and paying the mortgage, making car payment, driving to work, or getting Granny’s medication.

With that in mind, I would ask this question; if you are going to make an investment of any kind in your home, what makes more economic sense, a new kitchen (or bathroom) remodel or an energy retrofit? For comparison, you could drop $25,000 easily in a kitchen remodel that would never pay you back at all. Or almost twice that in a new ‘tricked out’ truck. There are few homes in the borough that could not save 30-50% or more of their energy costs with an injection (in the right places) of $25,000 in an energy retrofit.

Stay tuned as we take you through the steps to determine how YOU can start saving money, too.