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Old 04-20-13, 05:59 PM   #12
S-F
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Unless you have walls up to around R 40 and also really tight and low U windows I can't recommend more than 18" of cellulose in an attic. If you make a pie chart of your loss and gain at R 60 an attic will be an invisible sliver compared to everything else so the ROI is nonexistent. Also I can't recommend fiberglass. That stuff is a mouse magnet. They destroy it and fill it with urine and feces. I'm beginning to wish I didn't use it in my basement. In retrospect I think I'd rather live with the lower R value than fiberglass.

Honestly the best advice I can give you is to get the house structurally sound, use more insulation than less and to do your reading. You are getting a lot of different opinions here in this thread and some of them are conflicting. Only you can satisfy yourself as to what's the best for your house. As for me personally, there has been at least one point in every post in this thread I don't agree with. Who's right? Green building has a lot of different options and facets. Not all agree on all points. Most agree that more insulation is better than less. Most agree that a structurally sound house is better than one structurally failing. Take your time. Do as much reading as you can. Wait until you're sure you know what you're doing then keep reading for another six months or so before you start your work.

Just this morning I had a man adamantly insisting that his house was perfect. It had R - 27 for a wall and an admirable 1.8 ACH50. I personally wouldn't be satisfied with either of those numbers. Especially in new construction, like his house was. Oh, and he had fiberglass in that R 27 wall.

There are some really great and relevant points in this simple article that I think everyone should read:
http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/...ding-beginners


I wish you the best of luck. I hope you ultimately you end up with a comfortable and durable home which is reasonable cost effective to occupy.
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You know you're an ecorenovator if anything worth insulating is worth superinsulating.
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S-F: "What happens when you slam the door on a really tight house? Do the basement windows blow out?"

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Last edited by S-F; 04-20-13 at 06:15 PM..
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