Quote: (01-01-2018 01:57 AM)Alpharius Wrote:
I'm curious what you'd recommend. Looking at buying my first house sometime later this year, making it winterproof is a top priority.
The goal is to create an 'air barrier' that minimizes air infiltration into your home. Winter outdoor air carries very little moisture. So when that air is heated to room temp, the relative humidity can drop into the single digits. If you cut down on infiltration (hence, reduce the number of air changes per hour) you will not have the dry house problem.
The reason I don't like fiberglass is that air passes through it too easily, which greatly reduces its effectiveness.
The better insulators such as cellulose and Icynene (open cell foam) generally are not used in new construction because they cost builders more. Home buyers look at surface stuff (kitchens, bathrooms, granite counter tops, hardwood floors, etc.). The quality of what is behind the walls normally doesn't factor, so builders go cheap there.
Even commercial with well funded clients of my employer balk at doing stuff right the first time, instead opting to spend more down the road to fix the eventual energy issues.
There is a whole science to building energy efficient buildings and would probably need an entire thread dedicated to it. There are resources online to learn about it, unfortunately the info like the subjects of climate and diet is polluted with FUD from groups with an agenda. The one I deal with in my job is insulation companies claim their competitor's product will give you cancer.