Return On Investment from adding insulation.

Ryland · 01-24-11, 12:04 AM

This summer we added insulation to our attic and crawl spaces, the crawl spaces had fiberglass bats that were doing very little (37F temp in the inside of one while it was 30F or so outside) with cold floors and drafts, the attic was almost worse, very little insulation with air gaps in the rafter spaces that caused drafts in the entire ceiling of the up stairs of the house.
We now have R60 worth of cellulose in the attic and R10 to R14 of spray foam in the crawl spaces, the total project cost about $2,200 to add this insulation, hired the spray foam out and did the cellulose our selves, our first heating bill showed a decrease over last year of about $15 while showing an increase in heating degree days, this last bill was exactly the same heating degree days as last year and was a reduction of $40, a savings of about 20%, now we have a manual set thermostat and have been feeling better about keeping the house warmer now that it's better insulated, our friends even comment now that our house feels very evenly warm and cozy, no more cold floors or drafts mixed with bursts of hot air swirling around.
Now I realize I should wait until another month goes by to say for sure but it looks like our investment in insulation is going to have a great pay back, we should see a total return in 5-10 years, a return on investment that you are not going to find currently at a bank and banks aren't good at keeping your toes warm either.

01-24-11, 12:04 AM	#1
Ryland Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Western Wisconsin. Posts: 913 Thanks: 127 Thanked 82 Times in 71 Posts	Return On Investment from adding insulation. This summer we added insulation to our attic and crawl spaces, the crawl spaces had fiberglass bats that were doing very little (37F temp in the inside of one while it was 30F or so outside) with cold floors and drafts, the attic was almost worse, very little insulation with air gaps in the rafter spaces that caused drafts in the entire ceiling of the up stairs of the house. We now have R60 worth of cellulose in the attic and R10 to R14 of spray foam in the crawl spaces, the total project cost about $2,200 to add this insulation, hired the spray foam out and did the cellulose our selves, our first heating bill showed a decrease over last year of about $15 while showing an increase in heating degree days, this last bill was exactly the same heating degree days as last year and was a reduction of $40, a savings of about 20%, now we have a manual set thermostat and have been feeling better about keeping the house warmer now that it's better insulated, our friends even comment now that our house feels very evenly warm and cozy, no more cold floors or drafts mixed with bursts of hot air swirling around. Now I realize I should wait until another month goes by to say for sure but it looks like our investment in insulation is going to have a great pay back, we should see a total return in 5-10 years, a return on investment that you are not going to find currently at a bank and banks aren't good at keeping your toes warm either.