Scumbria, Yeah, Gas is high these days. Any way to retro fit some insulation into the walls? there are some good retro ways, such as foam or fluff filling the wall cavity(if he put one in).
The c construction may be so open that insulation is difficult. Here we have all new builds with R-20 insulation with no conduction path from the inner to outer as well as full gas tight seals on the perimeter. Think of the house as a balloon.....they test them with large blowers with heated air and they monitor the pressure rise(a fraction of an inch of mercury) and look for vented hot air with infrared hot plume detectors. There is a category called R-2000 that is heated with the normal living load that needs vent air to keep you alive, lest you use up all the oxygen in the sealed box. Many construction materials, glues etc cannot be used due to residual smells, same for indoor barbecues.
I have an older house, Jan gas bill was about $500 for a 14 room house, with an underground cave we call a basement here in Canada. Built in 1890 it has no wall insulation, just bricks, plaster and laths with a 2" interstitial space behind the laths I did all the windows double glazed in 1970 and put 2" of foam on the roof when I did a membrane roof in 1985, so that cut the heating bills a little. It is possible to foam the interstitial space but very costly as the space is not very continuous and they have to pull the baseboards and drill holes every 16" inches to foam-fill a space and they also look into the space with a video camera on a crabs eye stalk and see how far up the wall they can fill with the foam. Sadly all my walls have 2 cross braces so I would need three holes on each inside vertical 16", the cost was enormous and I chose not to do it. Next I will get a condensing gas furnace that is around 95% thermally efficient to replace the older one that is about 70%. Pays out in about 5 years...should have done it years ago, but gas was very cheap here in Canada and the condensing furnaces have fallen in price over the years so the payout fell from 10 years or more to 5 or less.
I had no idea the Bay area was so cold. An old frind of mine, Mike Quinn used to live there and sell electronic parts near the Oakland Airport, I never though it was that cold? (Mike has gone to that old parts warehouse in the sky now)
Is it this El Nino weather pattern that has upped your costs with cold wet weather. Another friend of mine has had hellish troubles with weather and mud in Malubu. Both his house and his brothers beach place have had big problems. A few years ago he had a mud slide and he had to take a boat to work in Torrance every day for a few months.So sunny Ca is not the way it is now?
Bill |
