High Efficiency Residential Boilers Mfg??

NY_Yankees_Fan · Feb 17, 2004

Dan,

Great idea!I sent an e-mail to the manufacture to find out what the energy rating is. Burnham web site also had a calculator to calculate total heat loss to determine the size of a boiler as well as the savings of say 75% energy effency vs 95% energy effency.

Used the IR camera today and found that my outside walls do have insulation in them. I was really concerned that they did not insulate the walls when the house was constrcuted 17 years ago.

This weekend we will add the extra insulation in the attic. I have R19 and then a layer of R11. I am going to remove the layer of R-11 and replace it with R25 which will give me a R44, which will help I am sure. I would go with R-30 but can only find it in kraft face and do not want to deal with removing the kraft face paper.

dmccarty · Feb 18, 2004

Tom,

Why are you going to remove the insulation in place? Can't you
just unroll the new insulation over old and get that much more
R value?

Our current house is almost 30 years old. It was energy
efficient for its day and I know it has insulation in the walls(R11)
but it sure is cold! I really wish I knew then what I know now
and I would have torn out the old prefab fireplace and put in a
new efficient one. We sure would be warm in the winter....

Later,
Dan

NY_Yankees_Fan · Feb 18, 2004

Dan,

Wife asked the same question. Problem is the attic has no floor so I will have to walk on the joists. Kinda hard to see where you are walking with 4 inches of insulation laying on top of the joists. I do not want to walk and go between the joist and through the sheet rock ceiling.

Tom

Libertine · Feb 19, 2004

NY_Yankees_Fan:

If you are looking to replace a boiler, you should consider going to oil fired for a number of reasons:
1) Much safer.
2) More available/flexible (can use diesel fuel, cooking oil, etc.) in emergency.
3) Cheaper (higher btu per dollar).
I have hot water in floor radiant with almost no ceiling or wall insulation, a lot of floor to ceiling glass (no attic) and have averaged only 800-900 gallons per year for 15 years. House smaller than yours and a bit further south, but poor insulation, etc. probably makes up for size difference.

JEH

dmccarty · Feb 19, 2004

Tom,

Ahhh, I see afraid of the Air Step. ALMOST done that. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Can you take some planks or cut down plywood to lay across
the joists so you can walk safely?

I've been thinking about this since I really want our new house
to have a R38+ attic PLUS storage....

Later,
Dan

bcarter · Feb 19, 2004

I really want our new house to have a R38+ attic PLUS storage.... 

I had about 6-8" of loose rock wool insulation in my attic that had no vapor barrier behind it. I pulled all of that out (by hand!) and layed in a 8" layer of fiberglass with attached vapor barrier. I then built an elevated platform using rough-cut 1x12 (full 1" thick and full 12" wide) that rested on the ceiling joists (going the opposite direction with the spacing of the platform framing set such that a 24" batt would fit neatly within). I then layed out 12" thick unfaced insulation perpendicular to the 8" on top of the ceiling joists and inside my platform. With a floor on top I had attic storage AND 20" of fiberglass insulation.

This made a HUGE impact on the amount of heating oil I used as well as making the house much cooler in the summer.

dmccarty · Feb 19, 2004

bcarter,

I have rock wool in my current house. When I bought the
house I planned on adding more and never did. I have been
paying for it every since.....

On your attic, how did you attach the 1x12s to the joists? Just
toe nailed them or did you use brackets of some kind? If I
went WITH the joints I could put in strips of plywood or plates
to keep the "platform" from racking. But if I went across the
joints I suppose the tie straps would work and the "new"
insulation would cover up the joists which is a good thing....

Later,
Dan McCarty

bcarter · Feb 19, 2004

> I have rock wool in my current house. When I bought the
> house I planned on adding more and never did. I have been
> paying for it every since..... 

My original concern was the lack of vapor barrier, but I noticed a big difference even with just the new 8" of fiberglass. I did the additional 12" the following year difference there was large again.

I have to tell you that getting that rock wool out was a job that I would not want to do again... I was literally taking it out one handfull at a time and stuffing it into trash bags. 1000 sq ft of attic took the better part of a month working nights and weekends but in the end I was glad I did it.

 > On your attic, how did you attach the 1x12s to the joists? Just
> toe nailed them or did you use brackets of some kind? 

I just toe nailed them where the 1x12 crossed the joist. Actually I used deck screws, so I guess you could say I toe screwed them... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 > But if I went across the joints I suppose the tie straps would work and the "new"
> insulation would cover up the joists which is a good thing 

My intention was to have the 12" layer of insulation cover the joists and any gaps in the 8" layer. The 1x12s I used were 8' long (longest I could get into my attic) so I basically built boxes that were 8'x8' with dividers in the middle. Between the toe nailing, the plywood top, and the 1x12s end nailed into the cross pieces, they were pretty rigid so I didn't worry about racking. I suppose a few pieces of bridging in the middle wouldn't hurt if you were worried about this (or were using longer 1x12s).