House is ALWAYS cold

[mystic96]

That airhandler install looks like a Siamese abortion. Notice all the rust in the overflow pan? That's because there's no P-trap in the main drain line causing the primary pan to overflow. Plenums look like someone just threw them on as an afterthought and slopped mastic all over everything to cover up, on top of that they don't even fit correctly. You need to call a competent AC guy and have all that lined out, chances are with such a sloppy install, it's probably not wired correctly, short of refrigerant (if it's a heatpump) ducts not sealed or falling off and who knows what else. Good luck!

anyone you'd recommend?

[turboskull1]

anyone you'd recommend?

I'm sure there's some guys on the board that do HVAC, I'd help you out but since I sold my business I swore off touching anyone's but my own.

[sdun]

where are you located

[mystic96]

trophy club

[talisman]

A friend/coworker just had 18 replaced by lowes to the tune of about 5k. I'm looking to have everything in my house replaced as soon as i can get the kitchen remodel done. Just need another 12k or so. I think when I counted we have 23 windows in the house.

Goddamn that's a lot of windows. Any of you guys thinking of doing this, be sure to do your attic insulation first. My house was built in 1966 and still has the original windows. Previous owner insulated the living hell out of the attic. I've also got gas heat, but my biggest electric bill has been $150(summer), and I keep it pretty cool in the summer and warm in the winter. In the winter, it's usually consistently in the mid $30's. I'd like to replace the windows just to cancel some noise, but really just can't justify it yet.

[mystic96]

This weekend Home Depot was advertising "Free Attic Inspections" so we signed up and EAS (efficient attic solutions) came by and checked out everything. Apparently our attic is running at 8% efficiency LOL
The guy suggested we add more insulation since we're only at about 5" with lots of low spots. Add 2 baffles to either end, and add a wind tunnel fan on the roof. This along with doing the Radiant Barrier was going to run $4150 but with their promo right now it'll knock it down to $2430.

Thought I'd check on here to see if this was about in line with what others are paying for this type of stuff

[FATHERFORD]

You can rent the insulation blowers for the attic and do it yourself under $500 pretty easy.

[Chuck_Finley]

Yeah if you don't mind getting dirty and can crawl through the attic, and a friend can help and also doesn't mind getting dirty, you can cover probably 2000 sq. ft. of attic space for $300-$500 (depends on how deep you want it) and they'll throw in the machine for free. As for an electric fan, yes it can definitely help in the summer but you need to make sure you have some kind of intakes like soffit vents first. Ridge vents, IMO, are fucking useless.

[propellerhead]

In the meantime, get one of those six person tents. Set it up with a space heater and move your bed into it.

[8mpg]

Foil radiant barrier or paint? Only go foil. You definitely need more insulation.

Also, for the window quote, that isnt bad but you really need to investigate the brand, the u values and shgc numbers. You want a shgc around .2 if you can. Everything I have read says with windows you get what you pay for.

I got 15 windows (in 13 units) for $2300 though installed them myself. They were Simonton 5050 vinyl double hung, low e, argon gas windows. .22 u-value and .2 shgc.

[Baron Von Crowder]

Foil radiant barrier or paint? Only go foil. You definitely need more insulation.

Also, for the window quote, that isnt bad but you really need to investigate the brand, the u values and shgc numbers. You want a shgc around .2 if you can. Everything I have read says with windows you get what you pay for.

I got 15 windows (in 13 units) for $2300 though installed them myself. They were Simonton 5050 vinyl double hung, low e, argon gas windows. .22 u-value and .2 shgc.

did you know that the argon is all hype and extra cost, but has no real value?

[8mpg]

did you know that the argon is all hype and extra cost, but has no real value?

Proof? And when it comes with argon..you dont pay more to get it taken out.

[mystic96]

You can rent the insulation blowers for the attic and do it yourself under $500 pretty easy.

Home Depot rents the machine for free if you buy 10 bags of insulation. Bags cost about $38 each. Add in a couple of baffles and we should be able to get out for less than $500, and it actually looks kind of fun to do. LOL

EAS quoted $660 (with their $.79 promo, $1575 reg. price) to do the blow in insulation and baffles so I guess need to decide if it's worth saving the $150-$200 we'd pay for the labor.

Yeah if you don't mind getting dirty and can crawl through the attic, and a friend can help and also doesn't mind getting dirty, you can cover probably 2000 sq. ft. of attic space for $300-$500 (depends on how deep you want it) and they'll throw in the machine for free. As for an electric fan, yes it can definitely help in the summer but you need to make sure you have some kind of intakes like soffit vents first. Ridge vents, IMO, are fucking useless.

We do have one electric fan hooked to a thermo switch to turn on in the summer when the heat gets really high, and 17 soffit vents around the house. Problem being 8 of them are around the garage and the attic is separate between the house and garage so those vents don't do much to help with the efficiency of the attic. EAS wanted to add in a baffle in the front and one at the rear to help air flow through the attic, and one more wind fan to help get hot air out during the summer.

Foil radiant barrier or paint? Only go foil. You definitely need more insulation.

Also, for the window quote, that isnt bad but you really need to investigate the brand, the u values and shgc numbers. You want a shgc around .2 if you can. Everything I have read says with windows you get what you pay for.

I got 15 windows (in 13 units) for $2300 though installed them myself. They were Simonton 5050 vinyl double hung, low e, argon gas windows. .22 u-value and .2 shgc.

EAS does the spray in radiant barrier. They quoted $1542 for the radiant barrier ($.79 promo, $2342 reg. price).

The windows are vinyl double hung, low e, argon gas filled. U factor .32, SHGC .21

Electric bill for last month was $250 at $.09 per KWh, luckily I locked in going forward at $.059 so that should help offset the heater running nonstop all night and day on days like this where it doesn't get about freezing outside. The thermostat is set on 70 and the temp won't some up above 67 inside the house.

Our attic access door is in the hallway right above the thermostat and it's horribly cold down the hallway so I need to get some insulation to go around the attic door because I'm sure we're losing lots of the heat right up though the access door right there.

[ceyko]

Honestly, the blow-in insulation is fun to do if you have someone feeding the machine while someone else is up in the attic.

My previous home I spent a lot of time dealing with insulation and tweaking everything. The one thing I did not do was replace the builder grade windows. The current house has the fancier windows and no draft is felt.

With all that said, no one aspect is more important than the other IMO. Based off what I saw here, I'd do these steps in order...

1. Remove old insulation and put in new in attic
2. Windows and try to supervise/watch the install. It does not good if they are not sealed up well.
3. Check wall insulation with IR thermometer (now is a good time since it's cold out - otherwise have to wait for it to be hot)
4. Get that attic unit checked out. Also, with it running all the time that will most likely lead to failure quicker costing you more coin.
5. Check for drafts around all doors
6. Recaulk all around outside of the house. I went through 5 tubes one time and that actually seemed to help.
7. Then get into things like insulating garage door...etc...etc.

[Goku025]

Dont mean to Hijack your thread, but speaking of insulation. We just bought our house here in austin and I have been working more and more in the garage, but with this weather it suckkkkkks!

Anyways i went in the attic to shove some boxes up there and noticed that there is no insulation at all above my garage. Is there a reason why that is? and would it help to warm things up in there If i laid some insulation down?
I have the cotton looking insulation btw.