5 Gallon Bucket of Coal Weight

 
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robb
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Location: Lancaster County, PA

Post by robb » Sat. Jan. 04, 2014 3:28 pm

bubble wrap (at least the kind I know) is a high end reflective insulation. It comes in 100', 250', and 500'rolls. I like it in ceilings I have never wrapped a house in it. Bubble can be very expensive, unless you can find it at auction or a building sale. When I wrap a house I usually user 1/2" to 1" rigid foam. When you use that and then tyvek tape the seams it is warm and air tight.

my 5 gallon bucket holds 40 lbs of rice coal. I use (in the coldest days) 2 buckets max a day. Usually I am 1 and done.


 
LouSee
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Joined: Tue. Jul. 30, 2013 12:07 am
Location: scranton-ish...
Stoker Coal Boiler: '57 EFM DF'd 520
Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: LL Independance
Coal Size/Type: Buck & Rice

Post by LouSee » Tue. Jan. 07, 2014 2:59 pm

LsFarm wrote:It's very hard to compare coal use from house to house, there are just too many variables.
For one thing, bubble wrap that is 1" thick is less than 1/4 the R-value of foam. Don't believe the sales BS about it.
If you want good insulation, and sealing in your drafty old house, use spray foam kits to spray at least 1/2" to 1" of foam on the inside of each stud-space in the walls, then fill the remaining with R-11 unfaced fiberglass. It is the best insulation for the dollar. The only better insulation is to fill the stud-space with only foam, shave off the excess flat to the studs and cover with drywall, but this is expensive..
Sealing the drafty outside with spray foam, is the MOST important thing you can do to save on heating costs..

Completely cover every window with either Mylar, or Visquene [sp?] and tape tightly.

I'm an insulation fanatic. my house rebuild has 2x6 walls, with 2" of spray foam [R-14], then 3.5" of fiberglass, [R-13], so my walls are R-27, Ceilings have 1" of spray foam, then 15" of blown in cellulous. R-50-55 .

Infiltration of cold air is a much greater problem for heating your house than insulation alone.

Hope this helps.

Greg Ll
What are your moisture levels like? Do you have mold in the walls?

Spray and fill isn't really the right way to do the combo because in a house where you have hot/cold weather exposure, the spray foam (even open-cell) is a moisture barrier and the envelope of the house is now at the foam insulation, not the painted drywall and you get moisture trapped and thus mold inside the wall cavity - even with unfaced fiberglass rolls. The proper way to do spray and fill is to put up the drywall and spray the backside of the drywall and fiberglass/whatever else you're using from the outside - backwards, I know. Which is why it doesn't get done that way. the real proper way to do foam is to foam the whole cavity - all closed or all open-celled foam. Some do a combo of the two but that just leads to the same problem as mixing foam & fiber - just delays the inevitable really.

For your ceilings, if you sprayed foam on the "floor", i.e., the top side of the ceiling drywall and the side of the ceiling joists and then covered that with cellulose, that's the correct way - the humidity will be "trapped" in the room below and circulated by whatever method you ventilate the house.

I, too, love foam insulation - its advantages are great - better insulation, better vapor barrier, structural, easier to completely seal the envelope. But have seen many horror jobs out there. Generally speaking, if you're ripping the wall off to re-insulate, fill the whole cavity. Consumers can buy foam now and the price is pretty competitive if you can do it yourself.

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