new(old) house upgrading

[fuzzysig]

we bought a 2 story house last year that was built in 1982 and havent been upgraded at all( everything is still original. old couple lived here since it was built.

the inwall heaters are old and are breaking/dusty making noise etc.

im looking for veryefficient heaters to replace them with (inwall electric heaters)
possibly fanless( i found one but lost the link( it had a cover and inlet on the botton and outlet on top and was child safe also

the house walls are not insulated but the crawl space and attic is insulated.

has old style metal double pane windows still that we have to replace

and we have alot of ground water and need to remodel the crawl space to install a sump pump etc because water accumulates in the crawl space.
i belive the water is right under the foundation the dround water is about 10 inches under ground. so not very deep

how much heat does a moist crawl space consume?

theres also a toilet on the corner of the house that stays cold all the time 2 of the walls are open and are in the shady area where the sun dont usually touch.


is there a certain type of wall paint texture that will retain more heat inside the house?

what can be done to insulate the garage a little better?
and also is it a good idea to lay concrete all the way up to the foundation to eliminate rain water from accumulating around the house?

[jeff5may]

Welcome to the site! Sounds like you have quite a project on your hands. I look forward to hearing about your progress.

It seems as if you have some issues that need attention immediately, and some that can wait. I recommend you do lots of research on this site by reading through past threads and expanding your knowledge before doing much work. Ask more questions and provide more info on this thread. Many will chime in to help.

[stevehull]

Number one priority is to get rid of moisture. Grade around house to move water away. If gutters/downspouts, then divert water away from house. Get sump pump in crawlspace as soon as possible.

Windows are the next priority (tax deduction), then wall insulation (also tax deduction). Button up house to maximize retention of heat.

Are you served by a natural gas utility? That may be the cheapest furnace, but may require ducting (not clear of you have those). Your gas utility may have rebates (check on this).

In wall electric heaters are very cheap to buy, very expensive to run.

How large is house?

Steve

[Daox]

I agree mostly with Steve's assessment. Definitely take care of the water issues first. Then, I would begin sealing your house up as best you can. You can do a DIY home pressure test to help find where the leaks are. This is cheap to do (mostly using caulk and expanding foam). Next, I would do wall insulation before doing windows. The amount of surface area a wall takes up is way more and insulating a wall is much less costly. In the mean time, use that plastic window shrink stuff, it actually works pretty good.

I would also look into a different form of heat other than electric resistance heat. Its expensive to run, and there are much better options out there. Many on this forum are using mini-split heat pumps with a lot of success and they love them. Check those out as they seem to work well for your climate.

[jeff5may]

Originally Posted by Daox

I would also look into a different form of heat other than electric resistance heat. Its expensive to run, and there are much better options out there. Many on this forum are using mini-split heat pumps with a lot of success and they love them. Check those out as they seem to work well for your climate.

Electric resistance heat, along with fuel oil, is the most expensive way to heat your house. Think of it this way: you purchase a heater for $150 and install it. From that point on, you pay $0.50 per hour to run it. For a comparable natural gas heater, it costs $0.10 per hour to run, but it also only heats. Both of these units require another system to provide summer cooling, but the gas heater provides 5 times as much heat for the same price as electric.

For a comparable mini-split heat pump unit, it costs between $0.09 and $0.15 per hour to run, but it heats and cools. The extra up-front cost is offset by not having to worry about a separate air conditioner unit. They tend to keep the zone that they are in at a more constant temperature than electric or natural gas units, which makes a big difference in perceived comfort. If you buy a high-efficiency unit, some of the purchase price can be offset by government energy rebates.

If your home has a loose envelope, and you plan on living in it for more than a few years, the sooner you tighten up the envelope the better. A thousand dollars spent on insulating wall cavities and plugging up air leaks today will compound in savings for the foreseeable future. It will also change the way your home "acts" when the weather changes.

Unlike most other home upgrades, a well-done insulation job will probably outlive you, saving more and more money as time and inflation take their toll. More importantly, the equipment that heats and cools your home will run less often, making it more effective and increasing its lifespan. A unit that was barely able to do its job in a lossy house will do just fine in a tight house.

[MN Renovator]

"Electric resistance heat, along with fuel oil, is the most expensive way to heat your house."

So is propane. A person I know living in rural Minnesota towards St Cloud was paying a ton for radiant electric flooring. Their only other thought was to go to propane and they just installed that. I was cringing at the thought of them going to a potentially more expensive form of heat(it's 80% more for propane versus electric resistance where I live). The part that caused me to freak out a little less about this was when I found out that they were sealing and insulating at the same time so hopefully that won't hurt as much. The funny part is they have very old mini-split AC units in their house and their neighbor uses a mini-spit heat pump and are hearing their neighbors praise about it but they didn't go that route. I suggested it but it seems they are sticking with the propane route.

Like others are saying, seal and insulate the house because that will have both immediate and long term savings for you. Electric resistance heating is all the same efficiency so an electric floor space heater, in wall fanless or fan heater, oil filled electric heater, baseboard heat, etc will all have the same operating costs.

[fuzzysig]

its a house at the end of private drive. the whole street is private and most of the neighbors are nice older people but they dont want to picth in to fix the street or do anything besides cutting few small trees down.

i dont think theres gas anywhere on this street. it would probably cost us arm and a leg to run gas pipe from the main...

from what neighbor told be there used to be a swamp centered few housed up from us( this area is a hill but swamp was a bit higher on elevation im guessing)
the water runs down through our property down the street

we have a sump pump that was just thrown in the basement with a pvc pipe added and a hole through the foundation( dont know who did that but it seems like a dumb idea to brake holes through foundation)

we are still trying to resolve this with previous owners because they didnt say there were flooding problems. we saw the house during dry season and didnt know how bad it would be during rain season.
they didnt put it on the documents along with other problems.
is the realtor responsible at all for any of not listed problems?
he recommended an inspector that didnt find **** in the house and just said to hire 4 different professionals to inspect what he found...


im gonna start from sealing the crawl space vents and then take out the plastic that was just laying on top of the puddles of water with no tape or anything inside the crawl space

the house was halfassed when it was built it looks like to me

[jeff5may]

So you have a crawl space, a basement, an attic, and a garage, all in one house? Wow.

[fuzzysig]

Yep my basement has its own crawl space my girl got a girlfriend. My car has miniature replicas of itsself rolling inside each tire.
Airbag has a mini airbag inside it.
I have wipers to wipe windshield wipers
And whwn vtec hits small children explode. And pregnant females give birth instantly within a mile radius..


Now back to my topic.
I finally squeezed through to the other side of my crawl space to dig some channels so the water drains to sump pump and doesnt stay
This **** is so sloppy. The ground is not even and they just threw plastic on top of it theres puddles of water everywhere.
Theres also a hole about 3-4 inches diameter in foundation for the sewer pipe tnat looks like it was made when house was built.
And its at almost exact level of ground water
And another pipe that was routed through foundation for the sump pump.
The inspector didnt see any of that sht.

[jeff5may]

I was indirectly asking for more useful information. That obviously aint gonna work. Luckily, many of us on this forum (including myself) have thick skin and a desire to help.

So it seems you have found lots of problems within the home, as well as identified drainage/seepage issues undermining your foundation. The home has been neglected for a number of years and you are stuck with a yet undetermined number of remediations and improvements to the property in general. You are a DIY person and would like to start improving the property now.

From where I am, I can hear this property screaming for a "proper" home inspection and energy audit. Maybe more than one, due to the water infiltration issue. When you let the realtor, seller or bank choose (pay for) the home inspector, it's like showing up to court without a lawyer. There are certain things to know when buying a home; one of them is hire your own inspector. Since you didn't do it then, you must do it now.

Since some time has elapsed since you closed on the home, it's most likely too late to expect any concessions from the seller or realtor. If, however, a building science professional uncovers damage or issues with the home that the seller should have disclosed during the sale (during an inspection/audit),you may be entitled to something. Depending on the circumstances, this may be a very big something, but you will never know until you have someone certified and highly regarded by the industry come and put the hours in on a thorough inspection.

Luckily, you live in a very eco-friendly area. The state, city, and utility companies all have programs in place to help you realize and achieve your goals. Here are a few sites to begin your quest:

http://www.seattle.gov/light/conserve/hea/

http://www.washingtonenergy.com/serv...e-energy-audit

http://www.habitataudits.com/service-benefits/

Once you have a concrete idea what you are up against, it's much easier to identify what should be done to the property. Simply patching and painting isn't going to cut it here (the seller probably did that already). You may find that, by law, you're simply not allowed to do some of what needs to be done to the home. An expert will know these things, as well as spot things that elude the rest of us. As they say: "Knowing is half the battle".

The cheap half.