Heating problem.

[JohnBoy45]

Hi, I have a 600 sq.ft. apartment and I have 53,000 BTU electric furance. The problem is when the furace is on it's warm in my one big room appartment but when furance shuts off I can feel cold air coming in from some where. I have only two windows and one door. The windows are double pane glass. This appartment is in a metal pole barn. I wonder if the cold air coming though the floor which is 5/8 paste board and carpet? The appartment is drywall. The walls have Insulation in them and the attic area to.

Thanks, Terry

 

[DUMBDOG]

Is the floor just the board over dirt? Is the floor insulated?

How much insulation in the ceiling and walls?

I have a cement floor and six inches of insulation in the walls and fourteen inches in the ceiling.

When the furnace is not running, you can feel the chill so to speak. To counteract this, we turn up the thermostat to 72. This helps, but until the thermal mass of the floor warms up that is the way it is. We should have put down a vapor barrier and some insulation under the cement.

 

[JohnBoy45]

Floor is not insulated. floor is made 2x8's with 5/8 chip board and 1/4 inch boarding for tile floor but instead I put carpeting down.

Ceilings have 4'' and walls have R22 insulation. This is weird today was 60 degrees outside and my appartment was still ice cold with the furance on.

Under floor between ground and studs it 2 ft and with no vapor barrier.

Thanks, Terry

 

[George2615]

Call your local power company. Most will come in and do a free energy audit to detemine where the leaks are and suggest what to do to cure or at least cut down your costs. Your building may not have been built / insulated properly. Floor may not be insulated, windows may be double pane but not have good insulation value, electric outlets may need insulation around the boxes. If you can feel the draft, the source can be found.

 

[George2615]

Seems like you answered your own question. 4" ceiling insul. and no insulation or vapor barrier for the floor are a big loss of energy. I have 6" rolled insul. in ceiling plus more insul. blown in on top of it. Floor has 8" insul. walls are only 2x4 construction but are insulated and outside of house is tyvek wrapped to stop wind infiltration.

 

[JohnBoy45]

How much ceiling insulation should I blow on top of my 4 inches? I will have to put more insulation in the floor. I also a woodstove I don't use I could just install this woodstove and it should heat this without any problem at all. It's for a 1200 sq.ft house.

Thanks all of you for the information. Terry.

 

[ns_in_tex]

If you can gain access to an infrared thermometer, you can go around the house looking for cold spots that may help in finding the problem.

I have found cases where an old house with 1x12" base boards checked at below freezing temperatures while the 120,000 btu furnace was running full blast and could only keep the room temperature around 65 degrees.

 

[dmccarty]

Terry43,

4 inches of insulation is between R16 and R20 depending on the material. I'm in NC and the recommendation is R30 to R40. R40 was the last recommendation I read. Search for government websites, TN might have one, that looks at your locality to recommend R values for ceiling and walls.

Later,
Dan

 

[Highbeam]

R38 is the same as 11 inches of blown in cellulose insulation as I recall. 11-13 seems right. 4 is not enough.

 

[ByronBob]

You can feel the cold air coming in......

Above you like the ceiling or is it down below like the floor. Where your feeling it is important.