Lets talk about the thing that we get to see alot of in the northeast. Ice dams are where an improperly sealed and insulate part of a home on an incline is heating too much space above it and slowly the water drips down the roof of the house til it meets the end of it. There an unheated portion of the roof is solid ice and builds a dam. Now this dam can be best eliminated by taking time to properly seal up the attic space and then in turn insulating the attic space, or wall space more. How much more? Well, I know that in my area of the northeast USA I would not be happy without adleast R-50 in my attic space. If you are having problems with ice dams, air seal first, insulate second, and then if none of that works finally call to have the wires or the flashing installed on the roof.

Today I was in a three story home in Cambridge MA. The homeowner was a nice gentleman that was most interested in following the bottom line. He wanted a direct account of how many BTU's he can save with the upgrades. Part of the reason that most auditors can only guess at the number of BTU's that you will save is because of the homeowners lifestyle. If suddenly by reinsulating your home you stop keeping the heat at 68 and knock it down to 64, then there is a significant change in the ammount of BTU's that you will use. Sometimes people will do this after they see their first energy bill post work done. They see the change and go, "I was spending that much?" Ideas and thoughts along those lines are what can change our lifestyle faster than any politician or idealist can. The bottom line is the best way to target people.



PS. I always knew that glasses were cool....

PSS. (yes I know it's the reflection of the IR waves and the spectrum not heating the glass up directly)

-WW