well to begin with the house was built in 1936 so I think it would be safe to say that its insulation is sub-par. I plan on rennovating the entire second story which isnt much because its a fairly small house. The problem I am running into with insulating the second story is that its actually a 1.5 story house. So the walls are actually the ceiling also. Not a lot of room for insulation. I am looking into the mooney wall technique as a way to break the thermal bridge and to increase the width of the wall/ceiling for some increased insulation. In the rennovation of the second floor I will be removing an old chimney which vents only the water heater. in place of the current water heater I am looking to get a direct vent tankless. what better to feed a tankless water heater than a solar heating system. The house is small enough and I have enough room in my basement to put a large storage tank. so once that is complete I hope to take that heat and use it for space heat as well. at some point I would like to do a graywater to toilet system, but thats the future.
|