Cold House!

[Devo]

I have an 18 year old house that I've just recently purchased. The floors were incredibly cold, so I had a home energy audit performed, which revelaed that insulation (or lack of) was my source of heat loss. Now, after spending a fairly significant amount of money to spray foam the entire crawl space and bring the attic up to R50 values, the floors and home are still cold? What gives? Not really sure what my next steps should be. I'm very frustrated and certainly can't continue to spend frivolously. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

**also note that I have 3 skylights, which are certainly a contributor, yet shouldn't be the only contributing factor.

 

[joecaption]

Crappy leaking windows, leaking seals on doors amount to about 25% of heating and cooling cost.
Inside doors with no gaps at the bottoms for return air flow, dirty slant or A coil inside the air return, dirty air filters, uninsulated or leaking air ducts.
Undersized HVAC system, (builders do this all the time to save money)

 

[Devo]

Thanks for your prompt reply. I've sealed all external doors, and the interior doors have the required gaps. I also had all of the ducts cleaned upon possesion, the furnace serviced (with a new filter). I do intend to put more effecient skylights in (I have 3 skylights in a 1500 sq ft home). The existing ones do have a noticeable draft, however I didn't think that it would be such a significant contributor to the heat loss. In your opinion, changing the skylights to a double pain and perhaps some of the windows will be an advantage? Given the attic and crawl space insulation I've just added, would/could wall insulation be an issue?

 

[paul52446m]

I have an 18 year old house that I've just recently purchased. The floors were incredibly cold, so I had a home energy audit performed, which revelaed that insulation (or lack of) was my source of heat loss. Now, after spending a fairly significant amount of money to spray foam the entire crawl space and bring the attic up to R50 values, the floors and home are still cold? What gives? Not really sure what my next steps should be. I'm very frustrated and certainly can't continue to spend frivolously. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

**also note that I have 3 skylights, which are certainly a contributor, yet shouldn't be the only contributing factor.

Are your heat ducts in the craw space? are they insulated? You say you spray foamed the craw space. Does this mean the outside block walls and between the floor joist on the out side walls. Is there any insulation in your floors?
Paul

 

[Devo]

The crawl space was vented, with little insulation in the interior. It's now completely sealed (interior). The furnace ducts are not insulated as they provide the necessary heat for the sealed crawl space

 

[RichSchmidt41]

Thanks for your prompt reply. I've sealed all external doors, and the interior doors have the required gaps. I also had all of the ducts cleaned upon possesion, the furnace serviced (with a new filter). I do intend to put more effecient skylights in (I have 3 skylights in a 1500 sq ft home). The existing ones do have a noticeable draft, however I didn't think that it would be such a significant contributor to the heat loss. In your opinion, changing the skylights to a double pain and perhaps some of the windows will be an advantage? Given the attic and crawl space insulation I've just added, would/could wall insulation be an issue?

What about placing 1/2" Dow blue board, as a test only, over the inside part of the skylight openings and see what happens.

Make sure you cut the blue board to an exact fit so that little on no air transfer.

RichSchmidt