Weatherize Your Home (1980)

foreign [Music] this is Elroy feline in Residence at the Gary and Rita Holton home it's December 5th and a nippy 41 degrees outside but by the contented look on elroy's face it's obvious the Holton home is comfortable as mighty comfortable and there's a reason you see Last Summer the holtons decided to weatherize their home to understand insulation Gary and Rita found they had to relate to a new term our value the r stands for resistance heat is energy and it's always moving from warm to cold on a cold winter day then the heat in the home is trying to get out and it will unless the house is insulated why well because the insulation resists The Escape of Heat and the resistance is measured in terms of our values the higher the R value the greater resistance to heat flow Gary's overhead insulation was R11 now how did he know that well he and a friend measured the cellulose fiber insulation already in the Attic and on the average it was three inches deep cellulose fiber has an R value of R 3.8 per inch three inches then is our 11. you get that by multiplying the inches times the r value per inch three inches by 3.8 equals 11.4 or rounded off it's R11 there are two other blown in materials rock wool and fiberglass rockwool has an R value of 2.8 per inch and fiberglass is R 2.2 per inch they're all good insulators but you must know their r value Gary was shooting for an R30 in his attic a heat holding R30 calls for eight inches of cellulose fiber it was simple arithmetic then to subtract the existing three inches in the Attic from the total eight inches to arrive at an additional five inches that Gary and Rita would have to blow in Gary made sure the insulation he bought met local fire codes the label contains all this information blowing insulation into an attic is a two-person job great for husband and wife teams Rita feeds the blower and Gary handles the business end of the hose in the Attic insulation requirements vary across the country so check with your utility department of energy extension service or heat supplier for the necessary r value in your area this whole process Drew one interested Observer Elroy nobody said it was a clean job and that's why Gary wears the face mask and here's the finished job a good eight inches of cellulose fiber which adds up to a reassuring R30 the houthians used a six-inch fiberglass bat for an r19 in their floors this material is abrasive so wearing a face mask and gloves plus a long sleeve shirt is important [Music] thank you Gary's tools were fuel with a sharp knife measuring tape stapling gun and cutting board he was well equipped to fence in escaping heat with a thick fiberglass barrier admittedly Gary was fortunate to have a four foot crawl space under his house most homes have only two or three feet sometimes as little as 18 inches gets a little cramped at times Gary found insulating floors was basically a job of measuring cutting and fitting also helps to be fussy you have to look for nooks and crannies that may expose floors to cold air Gary's cutting board was simple enough just a piece of lumber from the scrap pile and his straight edge a length of 1 by 4. [Music] watch How Gary began this job because this is important he didn't just stick the bike between the joists but rather brought it up to the top of the end plate before stapling that blocked off cold air coming through the plate from the outside foreign pushed the insulation into place and the puffy fiberglass stayed put temporarily at least [Music] the fiberglass blanket wouldn't stay there long though soon it would sag and fall down [Music] so that's where a handy little item called tiger teeth came into play Gary just bent the wire the tiger teeth between the beams and that's all it took to hold the insulation in place permanently there are several other suspension methods Gary could have used he could have laced wire back and forth or used a plastic mesh or a heavy gauge chicken wire The Motto here could be don't squeeze the fiberglass the more fluff the material has the better it insulates squeezing insulation literally squashes out our value this r19 insulation should put to rest any problems the holton's had with cold feet from cold floors foreign how do you insulate an exposed beam ceiling with great difficulty has been the answer up until now Gary and Rita though opted to use a new product a fiberglass thermal sealing panel this furring strip anchors the panel to the one beam then the holton's hoisted the fiberglass into position and additional furring strips were nailed in to Anchor it [Music] insulating a home saves energy and it saves money but don't forget the comfort factor living is so much more comfortable in an insulated home the thermal panel has a textured vinyl surface on its facing side it's not a wood surface but Gary and Rita still have the exposed beams and their roof is insulated probably the simplest job Gary did was to turn down the two thermostats on his hot water heater first though he turned off the power and That's mighty important for personal safety Gary turned his hot water heater down to 120 degrees then again some people with dishwashers may prefer 140 degrees [Music] a quick and easy turn of the screw does the job from 155 degrees to 120. [Music] then Gary wrapped the heater in a warm envelope of insulation [Music] like a tailor Gary measure the size then cut it to fit it's kind of a baggy pants operation though because loose fitting not tight fitting is the name of the game when wrapping a water heater there's a blue mark on the floor it's in line with the thermostats Gary put it there so he'll always know right where to locate them even though they're covered by a thick layer of insulation [Music] Gary would be lost without duct tape but nothing does a better job of holding the pieces together [Music] when finished every square inch of the heater is covered it's wrapped in an Overcoat with a gas or oil water heater it's important not to cover the vent or chimney one last major job was insulating the furnace cold air ducts the material bead board each sheet is an inch thick and has an R5 value Gary found a serrated knife was his best cutting tool [Music] plastic the bead board all the insulating materials used by the holtons in their weatherization campaign came from the local lumber yard as Gary put this panel in place you'll notice he held the bead board already up there with strips of duct tape until the mastic drive he removed that tape later [Music] foreign this insulation job looks great and it certainly slows down heat loss well that's how the holtons did it their home is snug and comfy in the winter time thanks to some definite action on the insulation front [Music] let's peek in on some others who are battling the spiraling costs of energy a vapor barrier under a house is an absolute must it doesn't insulate or weatherize but it does just what its name implies forms a barrier to keep the moisture from traveling upwards into the house the ground under Rochelle bagley's house appeared dry but wisely she went right ahead with putting down a vapor barrier although the moisture can't be seen it moves upwards as a vapor increasing moisture in the home atmosphere the more moisture in the air the more energy it takes to heat the air Michelle uses four mil black visqueen which works fine since the biscuit is not exposed to damaging sunlight clearbis Queen would work well too it doesn't hurt to stay in touch with local code since some areas require six mil this queen the object here is continuous coverage where joints are required the visqueen is overlap the good six engines to be sure she gets the maximum benefit Rochelle taped the joints she could have used rocks or sticks to hold the joints from slipping she again used duct tape to seal around the posts well how about wood frame storm windows we caught Jerry Beverly in the act of making some for his house again it's not difficult one caution though for the required snug fit Jerry did take precise window measurements [Music] it's always a boost to have a helper like Arnold Petrie let's face it though a helper like Bentley the dog you don't need foreign ERS clamp the boards together [Music] Jerry will glaze the wood frames with transparent eight mil vinyl he double checked when buying it that it had an UltraViolet inhibitor this keeps it from breaking down in the sunlight this material will last for years a 4 ml this queen is cheaper but it can deteriorate in less than a year just does not have the lasting power [Music] thank you [Music] thank you the window can be held in place by nails or by a turn button any method of securing the window is fine as long as you can take the storm window off in the spring for reuse year after year heating ducts that runs through the unheated parts of a house such as an attic garage or basement should be insulated unless they're insulated they can waste more heat than they deliver basically then you're paying for more heat than you're getting and that is no good insulating pipes and ducts can cut down on the annual heating cost by as much as 10 percent [Music] Judy Beverly uses a system similar to Gary holton's water heater wrapping the same three inch R11 batting is wrapped Loosely around the duct and held in place temporarily with duct tape just to be sure the tape doesn't loosen Judy uses a light gauge wire to secure the wrap Sharon Krauss zeroed in on the windows she took them out of the casing so she could really get at them chipped out all the old putty dried out material that chips that easily May somehow hold the glass in place but certainly won't hold heat in or cold out as you can see Sharon just wailed away with her putty knife still she was careful not to crack the glass [Music] to condition the wood Sharon swabbed it with linseed oil it's a way of putting oils back into the wood minutes new glazing compound and the windows are spruced up and ready for the winter ahead The Escape of heat through these windows has virtually been cut off [Music] these cracks and Joints may not seem important but they combine to raise heating costs and cost chili drafts [Music] notice how Sharon needs the compound in one hand and applies with the other think about this in a newly constructed home if all the cracks crannies holes and gaps that allow heat to escape were put together you'd have a hole that you could throw a basketball through foreign [Music] cost effective things a person can do is caulk all the cracks joints holes and any other little bitty crevices you can find this includes around the frames of windows and doors at Corners where sides join along the top of the foundation where the wood frame meets The Masonry and her pipes and wires enter the structure what kind of caulking compound acrylic latex caulk does a great job it lasts well especially better than oil-based caulk which dries up and falls out butylcock performs nicely at points where there may be movements such as around pipes and wires it has an elastic quality caulking is one of the most cost effective things you can do to weatherize may not save the most total energy but research has shown that it's at the top of the list and paying for itself in Energy savings normally within the first year back to the Holton home let's see what weatherization did for them Energy savings you bet floor insulation dropped annual kilowatt hour losses by a whopping 2413. even Elroy got interested enough to inspect this job [Music] sealing insulation both blow in and thermal panel yielded a total 1920 annual kilowatt hour savings so it's cold December outside but there's no way you can call Elroy a cool cat no sir you're looking at a warm comfortable cat even if you don't have an Elroy in your life weatherize your home to conserve energy to save money and to increase comfort [Music]