2021 Life Logs, Day 168: Insulate2Save Rocks
Date: Thursday, June 17, 2021
Weather: Sunny; High 75, Low 55 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Insulate2Save arrived this morning to start work on insulating the cottage. What an impressive amount of work they accomplished today. They will be back tomorrow to finish, but honestly, I was amazed with their expertise and friendly and caring service. They were equally amazed that this cottage built in 1964 had ZERO insulation in the walls. From their experience, most homes of this age have some insulation in the walls, but the fact that this one did not made the blow-in insulation process easier and more efficient. Today they put fiberglass batting insulation between each of the basement sills, insulated, weather stripped, and added a sweep to the door leading from the bulkhead into the basement, weather stripped and added a sweep to the back door, installed vents in the soffit, vented the bathroom fan through the roof instead of having it run the entire length of the house to vent out the side, and completed the job of blowing the insulation into the walls. Tomorrow they will blow 11-inches of R-40 cellulose into the attic.
The process of blowing insulation into the outside walls was interesting. They turned one wooden shingle between every stud sideways, drilled what looked like a 3-inch diameter hole in each space, and then blew the cellulose insulation in to fill the space from top to bottom between each stud. Then they sealed the hole, turned each shingle back in place, and you can’t tell they did a thing. But I watched and they did. Peter Baranowski was next door cleaning the basement in Shirley’s home and installing a new dehumidifier. So, Shadow and I visited with Karen and the aunties for a bit and then Karen and I sat in the side yard and talked and watched the work.
I did not know that cellulose is “green”, but I certainly did know that the alternative, fiberglass, is not. Cellulose is 80% recycled newsprint that is chemically treated with what are supposed to be non-toxic borate compounds that resist fire, insects, and mold. I read that insulating a 1500 square foot house with cellulose will recycle as much newspaper as an individual will consume in 40 years. That doesn’t mean as much these days as it once did since so many people read their news online. But CIMA, the Cellulose Insulation Manufacturers Association, claims that if all new homes were insulated with cellulose, it would recycle 3.2 million tons of newsprint each year. At this point, only about 10% of new homes are using cellulose, so there is lots of room to grow ‘greener.”
The cost of the work done today and tomorrow is $5,330, but with program incentives for rental homes the cost to the customer is ZERO. If you own your home, you pay 10% to 25% depending on your income. The Mass Save program is funded by the energy efficiency charge on all customer’s gas and electric bills. I, therefore, want to thank everyone in Massachusetts for footing the bill. My winter heating bills should be significantly less, but the most important thing is the amount of nonrenewable energy that will be saved. And this is in the best interest of all of us.
