Our insert has been kicking butt so far this winter, really doing a nice job of heating the entire downstairs and with the doors open upstairs takes the chills out of all the bedrooms nicely. Thermostat in the other room usually hovers around 68 - 71 degrees. In the room with the insert depending on how am running her we can get sweated out and have temps close to 80*. This past cold spell really exposed the lack of insulation my home has. I couldn't keep the thermostat in the other room above 66-67. In fact at one point yesterday while off from work the furnace kicked on for a few minutes. The whole dynamic of the home seems to have changed with this bitter cold. My attics needs to be air sealed and much more added insulation as it's very thin up there and this cold spell was a good reminder.
You are not alone. Betting there are many who experienced a chill or two! Yesterday and overnight I had my stove cranking. This morning the wind quit and the temps moderated. Night and day difference in heat retention. Our long stretch of mild weather made me complacent. Getting the rest of my place insulated is looking like a real good idea. To say the least
Thanks moresnow , glad am not alone. I was pretty shocked at how much less heat was in the home! I was looking forward to the low temps figured I'd run the stove really hot and warm the house. Well to my surprise the house struggled!
In the same boat ReelFaster the good news is there's a lot of online calculators so you can figure out what your heating draw is. Then you figure out the max BTU of your wood heater. Then determine what insulation can do to reduce what your heating needs are. Are ceiling really is the easiest and most cost-effective solution
Thanks Canadian border VT . I have a good idea what I need to do, it's just a matter of getting up the mojo to do it. It's a nasty dirty job! I did a lot of insulating and air sealing at my prior home. I have so many other projects we have lined up but I know that's the best investment for the money. Here in S.Jersey we don't get this kind of weather often but when we do, hec I am feeling it.
I wish this cape cod was easier to insulate. ugh! Most horrible house design ever! I should just cut the second floor off and put trusses on and make it a ranch...
Don't worry ReelFaster . It is my experience, that once you fix one area, something will happen and the next winter you'll find another area you need to fix!!
Amen to that.....It's like a domino effect....Am suppose to gut the master bathroom this spring.......Again I need to work myself up to it!! I'd much rather be stacking firewood out back....!
Looking like I may have to build a rather large shed/shop..... Fully finished 2nd home Just to store all of our sh_t while I remodel/insulate the remainder of my current home..... Oh the horror
Chuck I know we've discussed this before but again, to help you through this cold time of year, get yourself a small fan. Even a small desktop fan will work wonders. Put it on low speed and sit it perhaps in a hallway or cold room and blow the air toward the stove room. This will put the cool air into the warm which sends the warm air back to where the cool spot is. It is amazing how quickly this can work. For example, it is rare for us now (with the Fireview stove) to have to resort to this but we did yesterday as it was beginning to get rather cool in the far room. We have a really small Vornado fan (blades around 5" if I remember right) that we sat at the end of the hallway right in front of that cool room. I went back there about 15 minutes after turning the fan on (low speed) and it no longer felt cool. Yes, it works. When we get below zero we sometimes have to do this if we also get wind with the cold air.
I recall and that thought crossed my mind yesterday, problem was my wife stuck the fan up in the attic and well the thought of opening up the attic doors as cold as it was and going up there to find it was daunting . I will get it down and keep in garage or basement for if and when we get another brutal cold spell like this. I really want to experiment and see if it will help with my setup. Thanks Dennis as always!!
Cold snap and wind is the best time to find out where your opportunities to insulate are. Get some caulk and spray foam and knock out the low hanging fruit...it makes a huge difference.
Even high R-value windows can be cold to be near when it gets into single digits here. Was Tempted to hang blankets on all the windows. LOL.
New windows and doors all around and the outside walls still feel cold. I used the IR gun and checked. The perimeter floor areas are about 45 deg, while the inner floor temps are about 60-65. Majority of house is slab and uninsulated. Lots of warmth lost through that slab edge. I sit approx. 2' from one of 'em. Brrr. No sillseal, so caulk, no nothing under any of the exterior bottom wall plates (that I've found so far). I've caulked where I can to reduce air flow. We're putting new (cheap) carpet in wife's sewing room and there was air coming in under both exterior walls. Two of the outlets are on outside walls, and they both had cold air streaming through, so I grabbed a can of foam and went to town. Zero insulation behind both. No airflow now though and that room is probably the most comfy in the house (I installed R-30 in the attic above last year, too). If I win the lotto, the new house will be insulated to the max, so I can heat it with a candle in the shape of a wood stove.
We recently moved into our new home in Oct of '17. One of our goals was a very well insulated house. Our walls are SIP panels made from 8" neopor with an additional 1" of foam on the outside. Basement walls have 6" of foam on the outside, Basement slab has 4" under it, Attic has R60 blown in. Triple pane windows. On top of this we have minimal windows on the north side, the most glass on the south side, garage is on the north side to help block winds. Our last house was a late '70s trilevel. I hated the place in winter, it was always cold unless I ran the wood stove. But then the level below the woodstove would get into the '40's for temps. Because of bad insulation and lost of leaking air the temps around the house were very uneven. One of the biggest mistakes most make when building new is insulating to code only. Insulating is one of the few things that will pay you back every year you own the place. And its so much easier to do when building vs afterwards. There is no return on a fancy granite countertops. One things that can be done to help guide you on where and what to insulate is get a blower door test done. Basically its a fan in a door way that pressurizes or depressurizes the house so you can find air leaks. Can be done anytime of the year. This test will give you how many cubic ft of air leaks out of the home. That can be translated into Air Changes per Hour at a known pressure. Usually 50 pascals. Our house was remarkable air tight, 1ACH at 50pascals.
1850 railroad workers house here.. The IS kept up in the recent cold snap - even when wind chill was -40. Very impressed with it. I did find my first insulation project for spring time though.. The far bathroom just doesn't get much heat, no matter what I do with fans, and there was frost on the baseboard and above the window!
It's not too late to fix that. We have a house typical of the mid 70's early 80's so minimum of insulation. We added huge batts to the attic and along the front on the second floor added an inch of the pink stuff. We did it when residing to take up a difference in the front facia where a dentil molding was probably supposed to be. It looks better but more importantly the walls are always warm on that side in winter. Go after a Lotta simple stuff, door Seals, air leaks around outlets and windows and the boxes above the foundation. I wish I had done more than the tyvek on the outside around the rest of the house... That definitely makes a difference. All of the windows on west side are new, and they make a difference. The ones on the east and south were in good shape so we just refurbished them and added nice storms. We can push it up to 70+ anywhere on the first floor with the insert at full tilt. Upstairs is cooler in the two rooms at the end of the hall but not cold. 66+ unless it's super cold and then well wear a sweater kids. You are just more aware now of how your house holds the heat... And that ain't a bad thing, right?
