Green Remodel Forum

The proper procedure to have a comfortable and healthy home and save energy is to have a whole house approach. Before you do anything with your house, do a home performance assessment. The report of the assessment will show you how and why you experience uneven temperature in your home, and what steps to take to make your home more comfortable and health and save energy. Air sealing than add insulation is the most efficient to save energy and have more even temperature in a home. It can help you save you 15 - 40% on your utility bill, depends on how leaky your house is. After that, you may only need a smaller heating and cooling system.

A HERS (Home Energy Rating System) rater or BPI (Building Performance Institute) certified contractors can do the job for you. If you live in California and want to get the Energy Upgrade Rebate, only the BPI certified contractors are qualified.

How about the wall? Can we add more insulation into the wall?

Yes, you can add the new insulation on top of old insulation, unless it is wet. If it is wet or appears that the insulation has previously been wet, you should look for the cause and repair the problem to prevent a re occurrence. Remove any wet insulation. Wet insulation can lead to mold, mildew, or even the rotting of your ceiling or roof rafters.

It would be difficult to add more insulation into the wall because the existing insulation and sometimes wiring. Unless you want to remove the drywall. But that can be too costly.

That's great After that, you may only need a smaller heating and cooling system. you added an informative post, thanks for sharing.

Things To Consider While Using Insulation Blowers

The company that did mine recommended to remove the previous insulation and put in new ones. I went w/ their recommendation and it was a great decision.

I live in the Bay Area and I have high utility bill to heat my home in the winter. I am thinking to add more insulation in the attic, Should I add more fiberglass or cullulose on top of the existing fiberglass, and which one works better for insulation? My house is 28 years old and has a layer of fiberglass insulation in the attic. I think the wall has insulation but not sure.

Yes, you made a right decision. I did the same thing. Who wants that old dirty fiberglass in the attic of your house. Especially you had your roof replaced and the debris fell all over the attic. A roofer doesn't care what falls into your attic. He figures you don't go to the attic and you never see the mess.
So the lesson is when you replace your roof, ask the roofer to cover the attic before tear down the old roof.

A very good suggestion! Most people use the attic as storage. Probably no one goes up there to check.