introduction and some questions

[LanceA0]

my name is Lance im 23 years old and signing on my first house on may 14th. its a 1300 sq ft 2 story home from the 1930's. i does need some work and updating so along the way i want to make it as energy efficient as i can. i dont plan on spending the rest of my life in this house, but rather fix it up and after 3 years rent it out for some positive cash flow. it has plaster walls and i assume the only insolation the house has is the 3/4" foam board they put up before they installed the vinyl siding. i know the attic insolation has pretty much disapeared. it has the old single pained windows on the main floor with winter storm glass that you swap out the scrrens for in the winter. i feel pretty confident that my winter heating bill will be insainly high. i was plaing on installing a wood burning stove on the main floor, but i have alwayed like the wood furnaces that pipe into your existing duct work.  i found a HOTBLAST wood furnace that also has stainless steel(3") tubes in it to pipe to your hot water on craigslist for $350. the guy says its rated for 1500 sq ft, and is a stand alone or parellel furnace.  does anyone have any experience with these furnaces?

i also noticed that in my attic there is a 100 gallon + or - holding tank. it has a open top and looks to be put in there when the house was built due to its size. it has a pipe that runs somewhere inside my walls but is now disconnected. im sure pretty sure it was used to hold water then gravity feed wherever. im not sure if there might be a use for this down the road.  

im looking forward to hanging out on here tring to take in as much info as i can. going off the grid would be a great accomplishment for me and im hopeing to someday reach it.

Lance

   

[DanG]

Where in the world is this house?

I can't help with the wood stove or the water tank but I know old houses...

You'll have one stellar opportunity to really work on the house - while it is empty. Bleach and paint, knocking out plaster on the non-sunny side to install real insulation & drywall, accessing attics for new insulation, installing false ceilings in flat roofed rooms, etc..

In a house that old there may be problems sealing up 'too' tight, living in it for a winter season may better tell you if you're going to make friends with the old house. Mostly what you want to achieve is stopping the smokestack effect, ie: tightening up second floor windows with single season external thin-film windows ALSO keeps the inevitable condensation outside keeping the interior sashes from rotting. Roller blinds to block radiant heat loss everywhere. The list goes on and on, looking forward to pictures!

[LanceA0]

sorry i forgot to give a location. the house is in south east michigan.  i will try and post up some pictures today after work.

[GaryGary]

Hi,

You can get some idea which elements of the house (walls, attic, crawl, furnace, ...) are the worst for heat loss, and what you might save by improving them using this home heat loss calculator:

http://www.builditsolar.com/References/Calculators/HeatLoss/HeatLoss.htm

The calculator requires that you make some estimates of existing R values and infiltration that are hard to estimate accurately, but at least it gives you a start on knowing where the biggest holes are.

Before you get into doing this or that project, I would make a list of all the projects you might do to improve the energy efficiency of the house, and try to roughly estimate what each one would cost, and what it would save.  You will find that some projects will have a payback of less than one heating season, and others will go a long long ways out.  This is the plan we used to cut our energy use about 60% with a very good payback:

http://www.builditsolar.com/References/Half/Half.htm

Some possibilities:

• Before you blow new insulation into the attic, carefully seal all the wire, plumbing, lighting fixture, chimney, ... penetrations from living space to attic.  In most homes (with descent windows) this is the biggest source of air infiltration.  Much easier to do b4 you insulate.
  
• If there are heat duct in the attic, insulate and seal with duct mastic.
  
• Blow loose fill cellulose in the attic -- lots of it.
  
• Work on sealing around doors, windows, ... to tighten up the house.
  
• If there is a crawl space, insulate it.  Consider turning the crawl space into a conditioned space.
  
  

http://www.builditsolar.com/References/Half/ProjectsConservation.htm#Crawl

• In that climate, you really need to control heat loss from windows.  If the windows don't leak air, then you could consider inside thermal window treatments, otherwise some form of replacement window?
  
• You could consider blowing cellulose in the walls, but this may or may not pay well depending on how much insulation was added below the siding.  Use this calculator to estimate saving:
  
  

http://www.builditsolar.com/References/Calculators/InsulUpgrd/InsulUpgrade.htm

- More stuff here:

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Conservation/conservation.htm

I would get a copy of the book "Insulate and Weatherize" by Harley.  Its really good, and very hands on.

On the wood heat, I would keep the insurance company in the loop.  Many have rules on this.  Another consideration here is would you be able to find renters who would want wood, and that you would trust with wood?

Gary

[kenputer]

If this old house had a hot water heating system then the tank in the attic was a feed for the heating system as it was not pressurised system. Also the tank would be open for exspanion if the boiler over heated.

ken

[LanceA0]

Dan, Gary, and Ken thanks for the responds i really apreciate it. i will deffently be plugging in all my info into the calculators.

here a a couple of pictures of my house.