Addendum

[dancerjodi]

We are insulating our attic floor. What I'm wondering is, is it worth spending extra $ on the fancy insulation that would get us the tax break (i.e. would the extra money spent be above what we'd get in taxes OR would the materials end up in that much more of an energy savings). Or, perhaps the cellulose we'd buy would qualify for the break anyway? I need to look into the whole differing R-value thing.

All online reports seem to indicate that the blown cellulose is more efficient than rolled insulation. That's cool, because drilling holes and blowing in spots would be MUCH easier than prying up all of the floor boards and laying down rolls of insulation. We know we are safe to do this, now that all of our wiring is safe and proper which is a good thing.

Now, we just need to do some price shopping. My Dad tells me that using the machine is free if you're purchasing the insulation from a place, so that's cool. This should make a big impact on our heating costs methinks, which is good, because I have to pay that bill each month and it was quite painful last year - about $150 or so more than the previous year each month (and that was for the same amount of usage).

Comments

[devina.livejournal.com]

tiamatlady can speak more to this, but it's a credit, and that's generally done to offset the capital cost, not an annual deduction.

[rojagato.livejournal.com]

Might want to talk to arcanus, if you haven't already, about the caveats of blown insulation.

[roaming.livejournal.com]

One contractor I talked to told me he stopped using the blown cellulose because it tended to settle and become less effective with time. That's something to check about with other contractors. I decided against insulating the walls here, instead my ex-hubby is insulating the attic sides and ceiling with double the usual layers of the pink fiberglas stuff.

Oh, one other problem with wall insulating: there's soooo many places that should be caulked: it's nearly impossible to retrofit into our old houses. Fine for new construction, when the walls are open.