I just blew twenty bags of of insulation....

....and boy are my lungs tired.

But seriously folks,

I've been meaning to do this for years.  Our place was built in 1978, and had about 7" of blown insulation in the attic. For 1300sqft (two separate 4:12 attics), I bought 20 bags, and got the blower rental for free (though it's free at 10 bags).

I always find working in the attic one of the worst jobs. Usually I pick the summer to work in there, when it's 138°F. By the time I think about it in the fall, it's already -73°. I did good today, it was 50° outside. Added the styrofoam chutes for the soffit vents, and built up the attic access sides 16". I hurt all over.

New furnace (yay!) with A/C (new!) coming Monday.  I'm hoping to see reduced energy costs this Canadian winter.

That was my weekend job when I was a teen. Hard work for not much money, but most of the home owners gave us beer when we were done

In a row?

Amateur. Let me know when you get to 37. 

I'm well past 37. "Old Man Muscle" comes with a price: it's called "Ibuprofin."

Or did you mean bags?

Hey, try not to blow any insulation on your way through the parking lot!

I’m sure insulation was appreciative of your efforts. 

“Insulation?”  So that’s what the kids are calling it today?

We did the same thing about 5 weeks ago. Even though it was mild outside (low 80’s) the arrival was about 110. We put in 40 bags to cover the 2200sq ft. By the time we got down to the last 8 bags I could breathe anything through my mask but my sweat. It was similar to waterboarding in telling you!  

We too are getting a new heat pump/ac/furnace next weekend. We’ve been dealing with $300+ monthly electric bill in the middle of summer and half of the winter. We are hoping the extra 8” and new efficient furnace will drop that significantly. 

bobzilla said:

We did the same thing about 5 weeks ago. Even though it was mild outside (low 80’s) the arrival was about 110. We put in 40 bags to cover the 2200sq ft. By the time we got down to the last 8 bags I could breathe anything through my mask but my sweat. It was similar to waterboarding in telling you!  

We too are getting a new heat pump/ac/furnace next weekend. We’ve been dealing with $300+ monthly electric bill in the middle of summer and half of the winter. We are hoping the extra 8” and new efficient furnace will drop that significantly. 

Ouch! It will be interesting to see what ours will be next summer, this summer was fairly mild for Oklahoma. 1850 sq ft with 17' ceilings in the living/master bath, biggest electricity bill was $195.......but I also keep it at 70 in the house.

In reply to z31maniac :

Winter temps for us are 67, summer 72. Total electric. We do have vaulted ceilings in the living/kitchen/dining room. But we have no respite from the wind in the winter. Our tree line is growing but it's pretty flat here and it gets super windy and cold. We also have now replaced two old leaky sliding doors with new insulated Pella's, the extra 8" of blow in and the new furnace. I think next year we are planning on some insulated siding as well as the vinyl siding is 14 years old and looking icky and has zero insulative properties. 

Our largest winter bill was last year during a two weak 0- sub 0 month. That was harsh. IT was $410. 

I think that we have about 16" blown in in our attic--but our attic is small, as it is only a 4 bedroom house that is really the size of a 2 bedroom house, 2 story. It was put in about 1 year before we bought our house.

Our electric has never been over $110 in the summer (and that was this summer with a pregnant wife); our gas has never been over $110 either--and everything we have is gas. I suspect that we could easily get our electric down to about $90 max if we put a window unit in the bedroom upstairs as we just don't have enough vents up there to cool on the hottest days so I have to pump the AC way down to 65 for about an hour before we go to bed to get the upstairs comfortable. Again, pregnant wife.

The final push for me was the summer norm here in British Columbia is Forest Fire, and where I am in BC is the Canadian Desert where summer heat is knocking on 100°F.

Except I can't cool the house at night, because I can't open the windows, because I can't breathe the smoke.  My youngest and I both have Asthma, and I ain't getting any younger.  Being able to cool the house down and still be able to breathe was a pretty big motivator. I've never lived in a place with AC before.

Dudes should be here in 15 minutes.....

I've really wanted to do this for a long time, but it doesn't make financial sense for my house, and that bothers me. 

If I ever get lucky enough for a tree to fall through the house though, I'm doing the foam insulation where I have to and blowing it in everywhere else.Aside from the ridiculous moisture levels, my biggest complaint about this place is the lack of insulation. I'm afraid of needing to redo it every year in the attic when the roof leaks, and also giving the mice, snakes, and other animals that feel like they get to live here rent free a nice place to live. 

It's not as bad as it was though, when we first moved in, until about 93, we had a wood burner and electric furnace. Our electric bills were $400-500/month in the winter in 90s dollars! Getting the pellet stove and eliminating the electric furnace dropped them down to the rates they've been ever since, $175-200, pretty much year round. Even with 2 air conditioners running all summer this year we stayed under $200/month. 

I really need to go back and put in another 6+ inches in our attics.... our bills aren't bad, but the temperature difference on the top floor is just ridiculous any time of the year...

What pushed us over the edge on the hvac replacement, ours is old enough now that there are no parts left to order and it still runs R22. Of course it's low with another slow leak (5th time in 14 years). So we went that route for our big summer upgrade. It was going to be an awesome master bath shower but this makes more sense. 

Supposedly the unit we are getting the heatpump can heat down to 30*F which for us would be most of the winter. WE have cold spells into the negative teens but they usually don't last long... and the occasional -25 to -30 days but overall winter for us is pretty mild. We don't get the snowfall the northern end of the state gets so we get the cold without the insulating blanket of snow to go with it. 

Just did 38 cellulose bags over my garage.   Never doing that stuff agaIt's so freaking dirty.  Despite wearing a mask.im going to have black boogers for days. 

Waiting for my first bill to come in (should be next week).  We kind of skipped most of fall, and are heading into winter.  Lows to freezing overnight, and highs of 10 to 15°C in the daytime.

The new furnace seems good. The upstairs seems to stay warmer so far, the downstairs doesn't seem to drop much in temp through the day (yay insulation?). Certainly warms the house up more quickly in the morning (yay furnace!).

I used one of these masks; they rock!

Wally said:

“Insulation?”  So that’s what the kids are calling it today?

Yea, that's what they call it on snatchchat. 

Ashyukun (Robert) said:

I really need to go back and put in another 6+ inches in our attics.... our bills aren't bad, but the temperature difference on the top floor is just ridiculous any time of the year...

Spray in foam for more heat retention than fiberglass or cellulose. 

But Cellulose is better than fiberglass 

Our first bill should be coming in the next week or so. I'm curious as to what it works out to be

cellulose is better than fiber glass but dirty... Very dirty.  If I were to do it again, I'd do the fiberglass...  Yes it's more expensive, but it will take my a year to get all that dust ouf of the garage...

First gas bill is in since the insulation and the high-efficiency furnace.

So, um....  The bill is higher than same time last year. Figures.

In reply to SkinnyG :

Do they actually read the meter monthly, or do they charge an average?  The numbers may be based on something other than reality.

When my ex wife and two daughters moved out over the course of a year, it took two more years to get my numbers down to reality.  I did get a couple of months of prepaid gas and water, but the city even came and changed my water meter before they would believe me.