Sealing the Shell: My Journey Toward Home Energy Efficiency

Greetings everyone! Exactly one month ago today, I provided my first blog post to Patch.com. I gave a brief description of who I am, of what I think the Community of St. Clair Shores should focus on to prosper long into the future, and of my personal quest for a sustainable, local lifestyle. I am blogging today to update our community on the progress that I have made in the last month. Accordingly, what follows is a summary of the progress that has been made at my home over the past month in terms of improving my home's energy efficiency.

The top priority for my home's energy efficiency has been to "seal the shell" of my home as well as to add insulation in order to lower the cost of heating during the winter. For the month of January 2011, my natural gas bill came to $217.20. Since heating my home represents my largest utility bill, I stand to save the most money over time by reducing the amount of natural gas needed for heating.

The home energy audit blower door analysis data provided me with statistics that allow me to see how my home measures up to other homes on average in terms of efficiency. My Measured AirFlow came out to 2190 cubic feet per minute. Measured airflow typically ranges from 1000 cubic feet per minute in a tightly sealed house to 5000 cubic feet per minute in a drafty house. This measurement represents an opportunity reduce air infiltration by 50% by maximally "sealing the shell" of my home.

After I had a home energy audit conducted by ProEnergy consultants of Shelby, Michigan, we identified the most important target areas for sealing and insulating my home. The priorities were as follows:

1. Insulate and seal the floor and wall of the side attic
2. Insulate and seal the top attic over the ceiling of the upstairs bedrooms
3. Install a top sealing chimney damper to prevent heat from leaving the house through the chimney.
4. Replace cracked glass block window in the basement that is allowing air to come in through the basement
5. Spray closed cell foam over all the "bonds" of the basement. Bonds are the point at which the floor of your house meets the wall of your basement or foundation.

I decided to go with Streamline Enterprises out of Mason, Michigan, near Lansing to do the insulating and sealing work. I decided to go with foam insulation rather than fiberglass or cellulose insulation because a foam insulation provides an air seal in addition to insulation, while fiberglass and cellulose only provide insulation. I also wanted to use an insulation that would be able to be installed by injection into all my exterior walls without having to rip open the walls of my house.

After researching the different types of foam insulation available, I decided upon using AirKrete for the project and Streamline offers Airkrete as an insulating option. Airkrete is a rather novel substance as it is a cement-like foam made up of magnesium oxide and calcium chloride. Airkrete has an R-value of 3.9 per inch. The R-value of an insulation measures how good of an insulator a substance is and is used as a standard when comparing different types of insulation in terms of the resistance to thermal conduction provided by the substance. Airkrete also has close to a 0% shrinkage rate following installation, it has an excellent rating for being fire-proof as opposed to fiberglass insulation and polyurethane foam, and it is completely nontoxic and inert. Obviously these attributes made Airkrete attractive to me as an insulating agent.

The insulating and sealing project started at my house on October 4, 2011. First, the team went around my house drilling small holes in the mortar between the bricks through which the Airkrete insulation would be injected to fill all the empty space in my exterior walls. Next, the team went around the house filling the walls from bottom to top. After the insulation had been installed, the holes were filled with new mortar and did not affect the appearance of the brick of my home. The next day, the team from Streamline went up into the side attic and filled the wall and floor of the side attic with Airkrete. This was a huge job, as they installed around 5 inches of airkrete in the floor of the attic and 4 inches in the wall taking up most of the day. On the third day, they removed all the moulding around my windows and sealed the window frames with spray foam and caulk as needed. Also on the third day, another team came to spray the closed cell foam over the bonds and around the utility openings in the basement. The top attic space was not a good application for a foam as it was difficult to access. Consequently, we decided to apply 6 inches of sprayed in cellulose insulation on top of the existing insulation to improve the total insulation of the top attic space. Streamline also drywalled the attic wall and either side of my fire place where the wall had been insufficiently sturdy to accommodate the foam installation.

Following installation of the insulation, I have noticed that my house feels warmer and less drafty than it did before the project. I have also noticed that the insulation also makes my home quieter as airkrete also has some soundproofing properties. I am pleased with the work that Streamline did on my insulating job and I will be watching my natural gas bills this winter to see how much difference the insulation has made in terms of reducing my heating costs.

The next order of business following the insulation project was to finish "sealing the shell" of my home by addressing the warm air being lost through my chimney when the fireplace is not in use. This morning, Tom Maynard came out to my house from Coachlight Chimney Safety LLC in Grosse Pointe, Michigan to install a top sealing damper on my chimney. Most homes in our area are equipped with a "throat damper," down at the opening to the fireplace. These dampers are helpful, but still allow a lot of air infiltration through the rest of the chimney as I learned during my home energy audit. The best way to seal your chimney and fireplace is from the top.The installation only took about an hour and will greatly reduce drafts and improve energy efficiency in my home when the fireplace is not in use. The damper is easy to use and simply pulling the chain inside the fireplace opens and closes it. Finally, I am glad to have the damper installed before winter and it will help me to get the most out of my other energy efficiency improvements.

So there you have it, all of the improvements that I have made in my home to improve its energy efficiency for winter in the last month. Next week I will be having the glass block window in my basement redone to finish "sealing the shell" of my home. Consequently, I am looking forward to some lower energy bills this winter and I am confident that the investments that I have made in the energy efficiency of my house will pay off in lower energy bills for years to come. Going further, at a time when investments in the stock market, mutual funds, and bond markets are notoriously unstable and can easily lose you money, I believe that one of the best investments that you can make is making your home more energy efficient. As long as you don't move, you have a guaranteed return on your investment, and few investment brokers can offer you that these days. I would also argue that a great strategy for a retirement plan is to get your monthly utility bills as low as possible and investing in the energy efficiency of your home helps to accomplish this. Until next time, keep it green!

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or share your thoughts about the project. Please take a look at the links that accompany this article for deeper insight into the project and potential ideas for planning your own energy efficiency projects. My phone number is 586-871-2587