Warmer and Wiser

It's off topic for my blog, but we just had insulation installed in our attic, and I wanted to record the experience before I forget. I chose to have our attic insulated to a total value of R-50 not only because that's the number that the Public Service Company recommends (see page 13), but also because I can see what is happening to the price of energy. My wife and I are at the point where our other conservation efforts have reached a plateau, so it is time to raise the bar a bit. Our last effort was in February when we killed all of the vampires that we had plugged in.
WHAT WE ALREADY HAD
Our house was built in 1925, and it already had four or five inches of vermiculite as insulation. So, since vermiculite is rated R-2.1 per inch, I had at least (2.1 * 4) = R-8.4 already in place. Since it is VERY old, I used R-6 for my calculations. Thus, I needed (50 - 6) = R-44 added to what was already in our attic. When the installer came to put the new insulation in, he looked at what was already in place and said it was probably more like R-11.
MATERIAL
I wanted cellulose insulation rather than fiberglass for two reasons: Cellulose is basically recycled newspaper treated for fire and insect resistance, and is thus "greener" (ick, I'm getting to dislike the way that word is being used); and also, I hate those little glass pieces that float around and make you itch when you deal with fiberglass. The more I read, I believe that for our climate here in Denver, Colorado, cellulose was the very best choice for the attic of our house.

I also like its fire rating. Indeed, I took a handful of the cellulose that was installed from my attic and tried to light it with a butane lighter; even when I held the flame in one place for 15 or 20 seconds, it just turned black where the flame was held, and then as soon as the flame was removed, it stopped turning black and could be immediately touched and picked up. Quite amazing, and it put me totally at ease about fire caused by cellulose insulation.
A PROBLEM
Official websites like Greenprint Denver are consistent in saying Cellulose is R-3.1 per inch. This makes it REALLY easy for the consumer; if I want R-44, I simply divide 44 by 3.1 and know that 14.2 inches of cellulose are needed. BUT, the insulation industry charges by the R-value per square foot, so guess what? They don't talk the same language, theirs is MUCH more difficult to deal with, AND they pretend to not understand the Greenprint Denver method even though they are listed as being a part of the Greenprint insulation retro-fit program.

I pressed them, and they fussed and fumed and looked at one of the little paper rulers that they use, and they FINALLY said that they would be installing 12 inches of cellulose. I wanted the full 14.2 inches, and when I grumped with the salesperson, he pleaded total ignorance, and said that he was just "going by the chart."
THE CALCULATION
So, you have to do your own arithmetic, and then translate it into THEIR language. When you really boil it down, they just need to know the number of bags of cellulose that they have to install. So, I know that our house is 1100 square feet, and I found that each 28 pound bag of cellulose will cover 0.00123 square feet per R-value. Thus, I need (0.00123 * 1100 * 44) = 59 twenty-eight pound bags of cellulose installed in order to add an additional R-44 rating for all 1100 square feet of our house.

Cellulose settles over time, and the settling reduces the R-value, so I added ten percent and came up with (59 * 1.1) = 64 bags. (They still charge by the R-value per square foot, but we agreed that 64 bags would be installed in our house.)
THERE'S ALWAYS SOMETHING ELSE
There are other costs involved: Air sealing and recessed lighting fixture encapsulation both add to the project cost.

A VERY knowledgeable fellow who REALLY believes in insulation and in the homeowner knowing what is going on, came out to look the job over the day before the insulation was to be installed. He was also going to do the air sealing and recessed lighting fixture encapsulation. The cost was going to be between $400 and $600 for the air sealing, and $40 for each of the eight recessed lights that we have in our kitchen, thus an ADDITIONAL $720 to $920 ABOVE the cost of the cellulose insulation. However, as I talked to him, he explained exactly how it is done, and I decided that I could do my own sealing and encapsulation, so he inspected the job and left without charging anything.
SEALING AND RECESSED LIGHT ENCAPSULATION
I went to Home Depot, and bought twelve cans of foam insulation called "Great Stuff, " for $5.75 each, along with metal buckets for $7.99 each that are large enough to easily cover each recessed light with room to spare - the buckets were three or four gallon size. Total cost: $130.00.

I then went crazy in my attic putting a bunch of foam around EVERY electrical box that penetrated the ceiling for things like ceiling light fixtures, foam around EVERY electrical pipe or wire where it penetrated the ceiling, foam around EVERY plumbing vent pipe, and foam along EVERY break along the inside bearing walls of the house.

My furnace vent pipe does NOT go through the attic; I would have had the insulation contractor deal with the furnace vent if I had one however, since the Great Stuff foam is only rated to 240 degrees Fahrenheit.

NOTE: Wear gloves; I didn't, and Great Stuff has to WEAR off your hands; it doesn't wash off and doesn't come off with mineral spirits or gasoline at all.

I even foamed knot holes, and a few little seams that I found here and there. I'll bet I got more air leaks than the company would have done, since I REALLY dug around. I was AMAZED at how many paths for air leakage I found.

Finally, I gently placed one of the buckets over each of the eight recessed light fixtures. They were just the right size, they didn't touch the recessed light fixture "can" or electrical connection box at all, and had two or three inches to spare inside all the way around and at the top. Because of the wiring, the buckets were not down tight; depending on how the wiring was installed, one edge of each bucket kind of tilted up a few inches. Then I used foam to actually create the seal all around the edge of the bucket. Where the bucket tipped up, I just used foam to fill in the gap. I was VERY careful to kind of shoot the foam down the outside edge of the bucket and NOT UNDER the bucket; I didn't want the foam to get too near the recessed light fixture itself. But, when I was all done, I had a large foam barrier around the bottom of the bucket that covered each light, but NO foam on the bucket itself except for a few inches around the bottom.

IMPORTANT NOTE: My recessed lighting fixtures are all "IC" rated. The IC means "Insulation Contact," which basically means that actually the extra metal buckets are not needed at all, it is safe for insulation to touch the lighting fixture. HOWEVER, the fellow that came to my house said that he always liked to do the bucket, because it makes a really tight seal, and it is extra safe (and it is an extra $40 each for the insulation company). If my recessed lights had NOT been IC rated, I would have had him do the recessed light encapsulation; I am very "fire conscious" and don't want to take ANY chances.
COST
In the end, they charged us $0.88 per square foot to add an additional R-44 rating to what we already had, which came out to (0.88 * 1100) = $968.00. We were able to take advantage of the Greenprint Denver rebate program, so we get a twenty percent rebate back on what the contractor charged (there is NO rebate on the costs for things that I did) so when the rebate check comes (in six to eight weeks) the job will have cost us (130.00 + (968.00 * ((100-20)/100))) = $904.40.

I should note that if I had purchased bats of insulation from Home Depot and installed them myself, we would have paid MORE and, because blown-in insulation is the best for retro-fitting attics, because of the gaps between the long edges of the bats, we would have gotten a MUCH worse R-rating had we used bats.
SUGGESTION
When they came to do the installation, I told them that I wanted all of the empty insulation bags. Before I paid them, my sweet wife counted them just to make sure that we were getting the correct amount of insulation.
CONCLUSION
I have always thought that we needed more insulation in this house. I am very happy that we did this; I got my quotes on a Tuesday, and because it's summer and things are slow, the insulation was installed three days later, on Friday. I also believe that with out of control inflation right now and energy costs going up a bunch this fall, demand for new insulation will be very high later in the year, and prices will be going up.

Also, because our roof slopes; the existing vermiculite is deeper than I used for my calculations; I added an extra ten percent to my calculations for how much new insulation is needed; the 1100 square foot number that I used was an EXTERNAL number and our walls are actually three layers of brick so the internal square footage is less; and because I was so fussy with the insulation installation company, we ended up with a higher R-value.

I measured in seven places throughout the attic, and we actually ended up with 16 inches of additional installation being added which, when added to the already existing vermiculite might be giving us an R-value of as much as ((16 * 3.1) + 11) = R-60.6.
WHO WE USED
In order to get the rebate, you have to use one of the Greenprint Denver-approved insulation installers. We used Bestway Insulation (303-469-0808). Their price was competitive (actually the same as or very close to the same as) the others I checked, and they seemed to be small, friendly, willing to let me fuss, and had a slot available to do the installation on Friday.

Our only complaint with Bestway was that the person that calls to tell you what is going on is not very good; we had to call several times because we would be told "they will be there at 9:00." Then 10:00 would come and we would call and she would say "they are just finishing another job, they will be there in a few minutes." Then at 1:00 they showed up and she hadn't called us at all. However, I still believe that we chose the right vendor; the installers really knew their job, and when I looked at it, they did GREAT; it was level and even, the edges had a bit more piled up, it was neat, and they cleaned up and vacuumed when they were done.