Re:The McMansion Scale, Explained
by mattbroekhuis on Saturday October 22, 2016 @08:59AM
(#12768486)
I gutted mine out and put in spray foam before I moved in. Heat bill never tops 150. I realize that most people won't do this though.
You can get insulation put in without doing so. I think it's called retro foam. Also I'm guessing your attic insulation wasn't top notch?
Re:The McMansion Scale, Explained
by HeyLaughingBoy on Monday October 24, 2016 @03:11PM
(#12781855)
Within a month of buying the house I added insulation in the attic. Shudder to think how much higher the bills would have been if I didn't.
But then I moved to the suburbs to a boring 1980's ranch house a bit more than 2x the size and watched my heating & cooling bills drop to less than half what they were before. Charming as the Mpls house was, its HVAC costs were insane (since it was my first house, I had no frame of reference). There's a lot to be said for thick insulation and modern windows.
I live in an even larger house now, with a largely glass east-facing wall and my heating bills are about the same as the second house. Again, modern insulation & 12" thick walls makes a huge difference.