Water heaters / insulation
I am remodeling a 2 story, 4 bedroom, 3 full bath home. This house is old, added on to multiple times and has no insulation on exterior walls. The furnace and hotwater heater are giants and also old very non energy efficiant appliances.
I’m in central illinois so winters are not to extreme but can be at times. I have a $60,000 budget. I am doing 95% of the work myself to save on labor cost. I am having a contractor I trust to come in and help with supporting a second story structure due to opening up a kitchen into dining and living room.
With the budget I have to wire, drywall, insulate, windows, siding, 3 bathrooms, so I cannot spend thousands of dollars on going green, although I would like to spend a little more now and save money later through energy costs.
Right now my monthly cost for heating in the winter can rise close to $700.00 a month. Which is a lot of money in central ILL. I wanted to go with tankless water heaters but everything I am seeing is leaving me with mixed feelings on it. I also wanted to go with expanding foam insulation but again it seems expensive and I hear the blow in can settle over time.
So, any advice on either issue is appreciated. Thanks.
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Replies
Thomas,
You are asking some very basic questions. Probably the first place to start is the GBA Encyclopedia. Here are some articles to get you started:
Water Heating
Insulation Overview
Insulating Roofs, Walls, and Floors
Insulation Choices
Spray Foam Insulation: Open and Closed Cell
You may also want to read:
Are Tankless Water Heaters a Waste of Money?
All About Water Heaters
The Difference Between Storage and Tankless Water Heaters
Are Tankless Water Heaters Really Green?
The settling rate of blown cellulose is a function of it's seasonal humidity cycling and it's density. In a central IL location you'd do fine at 3.0-3.2lb "dense pack" density, but that isn't a DIY type operation. If you're doing a full-gut solution you could use damp-sprayed cellulose at 2.5lbs density and it would still do fine due to the internal water-activated adhesives, but open cell foam might be cheaper, and would be more air tight than damp spray, if comparable to dense-pack.
Air tightness is critical for both moisture and thermal performance, no matter what you stuff in the cavities. Air sealing the and insulating the basement/crawlspace usually has thermal performance benefits far beyond what the simple R-value analysis would imply, since it reduces 24/365 air infiltration dramatically.
If you're on the gas grid the pay back on a tankless==NEVER. But they make sense for those who have large spa-tubs to fill. For the rest of us you get equal or better performance out of a condensing tank type water heater.
What's your heating fuel, and the fuel's local per-unit (gallons, therms, CCF whatever) price?
Were you able to find the best solution for your problem? In my experience, you can combine both solar water heaters and tankless installations as long as the pump is powerful enough to create sufficient flow to turn on the tankless unit.
Since you’ve no insulation, I’m curious if you have old single pane windows too? Those are like having giant holes in your building.