6 Comments

1. 
   Andrew Dey | Jun 21, 2010 07:31am | #1

   Lifestyle Choices
   Thanks for summarizing Martin's most popular columns. With the abundance of green/high performance building information now available online, I found your list to be quite helpful.

   Your allusion to Martin's family vacation on Crete got me thinking again about the lifestyle choices we all make, and the impact those choices have on the environment. In a few weeks I will be traveling to Germany with my family to visit my in-laws, a trip we have been fortunate enough to make for the past several summers. I know that the carbon emissions generated by the plane flights will dwarf those of any other activity in which my family engages during the year. I can live with this knowledge through a combination of denial -- I tend not to think about it -- and the justification that the work I do focuses on reducing carbon emissions from buildings and, well, isn't that enough?

   It may be a topic for a different thread, but I would be interested to know how others in this community justify or come to terms with these potentially prickly issues. Who knows, perhaps one day the carbon emissions for which we are personally responsible may rank right up there with "sex" and "money" as subjects in which everyone is interested in, but few are comfortable talking about.

   --Andrew Dey

2. 
   Mary Brown | Jun 24, 2010 08:55am | #2

   Icynene
   I just read Martin's blog about Icynene : It's Okay to Skimp On Insulation. I have a question. What if a contractor or homeowner who is on a very tight budget wanted to use a combination of foam insulation (let's say an inch or so to accommodate the air sealing part of the code) and then use the less expensive fiberglass insulation to make up the rest so that one gets the R-38 and meets the minimum insulation part of the code? Is this a viable strategy for adding insulation to an unvented attic? Let's say I want to do this combination strategy on the underside of the roof decking to add more insulation. I don't want to blow cellulose on the floor because I use the attic for storage.

3. 
   Kohta Ueno | Jun 24, 2010 03:22pm | #3

   Weblink 404'd
   Hi Dan. FYI, the "Heating a Tight, Well-Insulated House" column link doesn't work right--"Page not found: The requested page could not be found." However, the article is still there--https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/musings/heating-tight-well-insulated-house

4. 
   Daniel Morrison | Jun 26, 2010 09:20am | #4

   Thanks Kohta
   It works now.

5. GBA Editor
   Martin Holladay | Jun 26, 2010 03:02pm | #5

   Response to Andrew Dey
   Andrew,
   You raise an important question. When Dan told me that he was going to mention details of my vacation on the GBA site, my first reaction was, "I'd rather you didn't." But it's important to highlight our own contradictions, and I'm willing to address my own inconsistencies and hypocrisies.

   For the last several years, I've been striving to invest in retrofit measures on my home to reduce my family's energy consumption. But I spend lots of money on gasoline for my vehicle, and I know that my carbon footprint is large. Each time I get into an airplane, I feel guilty. I imagine a future in which air travel is unaffordable, and imagine that in the future, we will be taking more hiking, bicycle, train, and sailboat vacations.

   When I was younger, I took a two-month trip by bicycle, camping every night and cooking on a small camp stove, so I know such travel is possible. If one tries to take a family vacation lasting one week or ten days, however, it's hard to get very far on foot or by bicycle. But such trips are memorable and extremely satisfying.

   I've taken long trips by surface transportation when I was younger. My brother and I traveled from London to Teheran by train, ferry, and bus. Such trips are possible -- long trips without airplanes -- but they require the luxury of time.

   Like other humans, I give into temptation. Air travel is relatively cheap; if carbon taxes make air travel unaffordable, I obviously won't fly very much. Each of us can reduce our carbon footprint by the decisions we make, but many of us (including me) are weak. Good tax policies can help us all make better decisions.

   One more point: even Americans considered to be very "green" -- environmentalists living in small apartments who recycle and commute by public transportation -- have carbon footprints that are far higher than most people living in sub-Saharan Africa or India. Everything is relative. All of us living in the First World use far more resources than we should, and it's important to be reminded of that fact.

   We need politicians who are brave enough to enact high energy taxes. Failing that, Andrew, I'm grateful for people like you to remind me that all of us need to do better and tread more lightly on the earth.

6. GBA Editor
   Martin Holladay | Jun 26, 2010 03:11pm | #6

   Response to Mary Brown
   Mary,
   The insulation method you describe -- "a combination of foam insulation (let's say an inch or so to accommodate the air sealing part of the code) and ... less expensive fiberglass insulation to make up the rest" -- is usually called the "flash and batt" method.

   This method has been discussed many times on the GBA site. For example, check out these pages:

   https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/community/forum/gba-pro-help/13791/spray-foam-and-batt-insulation

   https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/community/forum/energy-efficiency-and-durability/12175/hybrid-insulation-techniques

   https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/community/forum/energy-efficiency-and-durability/17116/flash-and-batt-hot-humid-south

   https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/community/forum/gba-pro-help/15859/i-have-built-home-lower-new-hampshire-about-hour-north-concord-us