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With electric and energy prices skyrocketing, people are looking more into insulating their homes. RockWool, Quiet Wool, spray foam, blown in insulation.

Another thing is sealing gaskets around light switches and power outlets and adjusting your doors and even replacing the rubber seals so they seal and shut extra well.

When we built our house, we did 2x8 exterior walls. We used staggered 2x4 studs to break the thermal barrier. Then we sprayed 2 inches foam inside the wall against the exterior sheathing. This was primarily to seal against drafts. Then we filled the remaining 5” of the wall cavity with blown insulation.

Our current house heating is half of the cost of our previous home. Even though this house is 3 times bigger than the previous house. That was build in 1940’s and didn’t have any wall insulation and was heated by oil, and pellets stove and an electric space heater backup, instead of a modern high efficiency electric heat pump, with wood stove backup.

Efficient heating and insulation make a huge difference.

I have cousins who own an insulation retrofit business in Indiana. They make a decent living insulating old houses with various products like blown in insulation in wall cavities and doing attics and crawl spaces.

But R7ehr is right. You can only do so much with an existing home built many decades ago. Modern homes designed to be well insulated from the ground up are always going to be more efficient.

Paradoxically, cooling is the opposite. A lot of old homes were well designed with natural ventilation and cooling with floor plans designed to facilitate air flow and features like big porches and shaded verandas to provide natural cooling. Whereas modern homes in hot climates are often just sealed boxes that sit in the sun with no real way to cool them off except blast the AC. Opening windows doesn't do much if the windows themselves are baking in the sun and there is no natural air flow inside the house.

Here in my home town, most of the older homes built in the 1920s or before have big beautiful porches and big eaves to provide shade to windows. And they have simple floor plans designed to provide front to back air flow. They were all built before AC or central air was a thing. New homes have none of that. And if they have porches they are just decorative elements not functional.

So while modern homes are much better for heating, they are often much worse when it comes to cooling.

Morning Glories

One old house we lived in had a (new) bay window that faced due-west.
In summers, it was a bear.

We hung a rolled vinyl net that served as a trellis, ground to soffit, 10-12’+? It was tall.
(In front of the fixed picture-window part, probably 4’wide.)
We left the 2 angled side windows as they were. These opened, with screens.

In spring, i planted Morning Glory seeds at the foot of the trellis.
MGs grow fast!

By the time the heat became a problem, that awful window was covered, the inside room shaded, and, side windows provided air circulation. A huge improvement, for little $$$.

MGs are annuals. We’d clean them away in fall, replant in spring.

- - - - - - -

Orienting your house BEFORE construction, to take advantage of sun, and protect from elements, like wind, is the best place to start. So many houses are built that ignore all this.

R7ehr:
When we built our house, we did 2x8 exterior walls.

A dream come true!
In my area, 2x4 is standard, 2x6 can be had. i’ve not known of 2x8, but, YES! love that idea.

Window film
We also used a type of window film, esp on south-facing windows, including a skylight in one home.
i’m not sure of brand. There are different types for different uses.
We had professional installers, but the products can be DIY.

The type we used was not noticeable, not the mirror-effect often used for commercial buildings.
We might have used the commercial grade in the skylight. Blue skies!
Example:

ARCHITECTURAL WINDOW TINT
Whether the goal is rejecting heat, enhancing privacy, solar energy protection, or purely as decoration, our architectural flat glass window tint products are the perfect fit for any residential or commercial applications.
https://flexfilmstore.com/collections/a ... indow-tint

Reflectix
https://buyersguide.org/reflective-insu ... d=10769541

^^Reflectix is a great product with lots of uses. Easy to work with, clean. Lightweight.

i cut a piece to use in my luggage to keep medication cool when traveling.
also, a piece works great to kneel on for gardening or household chores. a piece stays in my car trunk.
i cut a piece to cover crawlspace vents in winter. it lasts year after year, no tape or anything needed. i cut a little bigger than the opening, “fit” it in snugly. no problem.

We used a combination of methods, in addition to various types of attic insulation.

Ken wrote: ↑Tue Aug 05, 2025 2:31 pm I have cousins who own an insulation retrofit business in Indiana. They make a decent living insulating old houses with various products like blown in insulation in wall cavities and doing attics and crawl spaces.

But R7ehr is right. You can only do so much with an existing home built many decades ago. Modern homes designed to be well insulated from the ground up are always going to be more efficient.

Paradoxically, cooling is the opposite. A lot of old homes were well designed with natural ventilation and cooling with floor plans designed to facilitate air flow and features like big porches and shaded verandas to provide natural cooling. Whereas modern homes in hot climates are often just sealed boxes that sit in the sun with no real way to cool them off except blast the AC. Opening windows doesn't do much if the windows themselves are baking in the sun and there is no natural air flow inside the house.

Here in my home town, most of the older homes built in the 1920s or before have big beautiful porches and big eaves to provide shade to windows. And they have simple floor plans designed to provide front to back air flow. They were all built before AC or central air was a thing. New homes have none of that. And if they have porches they are just decorative elements not functional.

So while modern homes are much better for heating, they are often much worse when it comes to cooling.

I've been considering that exact thing - when I look at the electric bill, the cost of cooling is higher than the cost of heating, and I have an old school resistive heat furnace. So my real problem is cooling, not heating. (I'm using a rather simple comparison of summer electric bills to winter ones. We only really need the furnace on much for a few months in the winter, whereas the A/C becomes necessary for 6-7 months of the year.)

In Australia we had houses called "Queenslanders" designed to stay nice and cool even when the temps hit north of 90 F. They'd have windows which were aligned with the prevailing winds, so the wind would just blow right through the house. And the houses would be up on stilts, which for some reason would make the wind catch better.

I've always wanted to live in one of those earth-bermed houses with windows in the front for the living/kitchen. We even looked at one for sale but my wife said no. She said she isn't a bear. I thought it was great.
The bedrooms were in the back, had no windows, and it was pretty much complete silence. With my favorite mattress I could get a serious night's sleep there. The realtor showed us copies of the heating and cooling bills and they were less than $20/month.
I want to be like a bear and live in an earth-bermed home.

JohnL wrote: ↑Wed Aug 06, 2025 10:01 am I've always wanted to live in one of those earth-bermed houses with windows in the front for the living/kitchen. We even looked at one for sale but my wife said no. She said she isn't a bear. I thought it was great.
The bedrooms were in the back, had no windows...

Unless the house has a sprinkler system, that's a code violation.

I’m a big fan of thoughtful design in buildings.
Pay attention to orientation. Which side will the weather hit, the sun hit, etc. For example plan your outdoor sitting area on a unshaded south side for summer afternoon use. It will be blazing hot. Kitchen window on the east might be nice for the morning, a north kitchen will not be a light, a south or west one may be plenty of light and hot.
Plate glass/picture windows are tighter than windows that open. Consider if you actually are going to open that window. If now, maybe a non-opening window is better. If the home is large, careless design may leave you with unnecessary number of exterior doors. They are leaky. A southwest bedroom may be warmer than a northeast one.
A wrap around porch will shade the first floor windows, and reduce heat coming in from the sun.

Problem is that on homes built on small city lots, there isn’t a lot of flexibility in the design.

R7ehr wrote: ↑Wed Aug 06, 2025 11:20 am I’m a big fan of thoughtful design in buildings.
Pay attention to orientation. Which side will the weather hit, the sun hit, etc. For example plan your outdoor sitting area on a unshaded south side for summer afternoon use. It will be blazing hot. Kitchen window on the east might be nice for the morning, a north kitchen will not be a light, a south or west one may be plenty of light and hot.
Plate glass/picture windows are tighter than windows that open. Consider if you actually are going to open that window. If now, maybe a non-opening window is better. If the home is large, careless design may leave you with unnecessary number of exterior doors. They are leaky. A southwest bedroom may be warmer than a northeast one.
A wrap around porch will shade the first floor windows, and reduce heat coming in from the sun.

Problem is that on homes built on small city lots, there isn’t a lot of flexibility in the design.

In urban settings on small lots, old fashioned row houses are more energy efficient, both to heat and to cool. Shared walls insulate against both heat and cold. People knew this back in the day as well which is one reason why that building form is so common in older cities in the US and around the world. Especially if you combine them with narrow streets and lots of street trees to provide more shade and minimize the heat island effect of pavement.

For a few years we had an inside unit condo, one unit on each side.

We put lots of blown in insulation in the attic, plus window film.
We had 1 nice bedroom window facing north, the rest were south, no east or west windows.
Garage opened to the north.

Our heating+cooling bills were much lower than neighbors around, not just adjacent.

i wish i’d stayed there.

INSULATED GARAGE DOOR
i highly recommend. not only for 12 mo temp control, but QUIET. really nice.