Bundle Up!

Our local utility company is, like most around the country, predicting huge price increases for natural gas this winter. It's telling us to expect bills that are double and triple the norm, which will put a pinch in most family budgets--ours included.

In anticipation of this crunch, I've been thinking about ways we can reduce our utility consumption, not just at our house but also at my mother's home--a smaller but much older and less insulated building than ours.

The first thing the "experts" tell you to do is increase the insulation in your attic. Well, after my experience in Mississippi tearing out hurricane-damaged insulation, that's not an area I've got a fondness for. But my experience did embolden me to some extent to think that I might manage to do the project myself if I could use batts, not loose insulation.

Yet, I read all this conflicting information about the safety of insulation. I'm afraid of fiberglass, even though I know that's what in our attic now. Even with protective gear, I'm petrified I'll get a flake of it on me. (I think I brought one or two home with me from Mississippi, because I had a strange, red rash on my neck and flaking on my eyelid for about a week thereafter.)

So I looked into cellulose. You apparently can't get that in batts--has to be blown in loose form. That means you need to hire someone to do it. After researching online, I finally found one company locally that does it. I called and left a message requesting a quote. Two days later, the company returned my call to say they could not take any more business! So much for cellulose.

I guess that leaves me with fiberglass batts. Either that, or I leave the attic alone and just focus on caulking and weatherstripping where I can. I do need to put an insulated water heater blanket on our new unit, though, since the old one doesn't fit. How much those little things would do is debatable.

As for my mother's house, I don't think anything will help much other than adding attic insulation. Nothing's been added to that since the house was built in 1953. Talk about settling down to nothing! The heat just flows up and out the roof. I can probably improve things a tad with insulating around the windows, that is, if I can get past the furniture and boxes to get to the windows. Hmmm. Makes fiberglass installation sound like a piece of cake!