The Energy Audit Saga Continues

In my last newsletter, I wrote about the two energy audits I had done recently: one through Dominion East Ohio’s GoodCents program, the other through a company specializing in audits. If you missed that article and would like to read a comparison of the two audits, just click below: Battle of the Energy Audits. Well, after getting all that information on where my house is losing energy, you might wonder what I’m doing about it.

I’m pretty passionate about the importance of insulation and air sealing, so I would have liked to have done the deluxe package recommended by the one company, pulling back all the existing insulation in the attic and getting thorough air sealing around all of the openings there. However, since I’d had the worst of the holes closed up before insulating 10 years ago, I thought the payback on that would be minimal. So I’m moving forward with adding more cellulose insulation in the attic (for a total of 14” deep), putting air tight boxes around the can lights in the attic, sealing leaks in the basement ducts, and sealing the rim joists around the top of my basement walls. I’m especially excited about the rim joists, because having this done should make it more comfortable in my walk-out basement office. The rim joists have fiberglass batts in them now, but I know that they provide almost no insulation value without a good air barrier. Here are two details of ways to insulate the rim joist.  The one on the upper left is what I had done.  If you want to do it yourself, using rigid foam as shown on the right is a good way to go.

The next question was who to have do the work. While the other company was very knowledgeable and professional, they just couldn’t compete with the rebates available through the Dominion program. By getting the audit done and then having the recommended work done by one of their participating contractors, I’ll get a rebate of 22% of the cost of the work! I’m looking forward to a more comfortable house next winter, with lower heating bills. How about you? I’ve heard that the GoodCents program may be discontinued in the near future, so if you’d like to take advantage of the Dominion rebates, now is the time! For details on the program click on: Dominion East Ohio

First published May 1, 2012