Remote Living > Housing
Manufactured home attic cavity - insulate more or gable vent?
Atokatim:
I live in a 24 x 50 Manufactured home and am trying to improve the efficiency as much as possible as I don't plan on moving any time soon. I just recently installed a 2.15KW sun tracking solar panel system and had TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) come out and do a capacity check on my air conditioner which turned out fine.
Since I live in a manufactured home, I can only do so much to polish this turd :P My question is, should I just fill the roof cavity with more insulation ($700+) or should I install gable vents ($200)? Which would be more efficient? The current insulation in the roof cavity is probably bare minimum for code. There are 2 static vents on the south side of the house about 1.5 to 2 feet down from the ridge and spaced about 25ft apart. I did install a tin roof on slats over the shingles a couple years ago but that did not seem to help my electric bill any.
I know there are other things I can do like windows and belly insulation, but I want to stick with one thing at a time.
Mary B:
Insulate!
MattM:
Insulation now, think active ventilation later. Much easier to actively move air in the limited space than to rebuild the roof vents. You might consider a metal roof with an air gap on the next re-roof. Prefabricated homes tend to be easier to put on metal roofing. The air gap insulates the underlayment and keeps the sun heating off the rest of the house. Aluminum roofing radiates the heat really well. Copper does even better. But if you have trees think steel.
Atokatim:
I did go with a tin roof and I installed the sheets on slats that I screwed down over the shingles so there is about a 1/2" air gap between the shingles and the tin. The insulation would be a pain in the butt since no insulation company wants to deal with my house since there is so little space to get into and blow in insulation. One company said $600 to blow in the insulation as long as I do all the prep work. A couple days later, the price changed to $900...
I am looking to do it myself by buying the insulation from lowes or home depot and renting the machine to do it myself. I figure the cost for 1200 square feet of cavity will cost me about $500 for the material and I think I can rent the machine for free if I buy a certain amount of insulation at once. I am by no means a professional, but I am sure I can do it myself.
Installing the gable vents would be the easiest and cheapest option for now but I am afraid if I install the gable vents, it could hurt in the winter time with my existing insulation being so minimal. And...if I add more insulation, the airflow will be restricted across the cavity since I was told to pack the roof full of insulation to get the highest "R" value I can.
Lowes has blow in insulation that can cover 106 square feet per bag and it is $32 per bag. I am guestimating I need about 15 bags to fill my roof cavity. At the peak of my roof, I have about 18" to 24" gap between the sheet rock and the top plywood and it angles down from there to the over hang of my roof. Can someone check my math?
klsmurf:
You did mention you have a couple of roof vents, but are there any soffit vents?
How much insulation is in there now?
What is the height of the attic space?
Is there electric up there now?
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