insulate old house or not?

Question

House is over 100 years old. Heating bills in winter are around 650 month with electric heat left at 65 degrees and only 1300 square feet. rent is 1100 month. Would you insulate the house or not?  Attic not insulated or any walls house or ducts in the house.

Just put a heat pump and air handlers in, was oil heat. Kind of feel bad electric bills are so high but does not really benefit me to pay to insulate it. What would you do?

Thanksssss

Account Closed · Answer

Jimmy S.  "Kind of feel bad electric bills are so high but does not really benefit me to pay to insulate it. "

i don't even know what to say to this. It's just stunning.

Marcia Maynard · Answer

Providing a habitable home with proper weatherizing is one of the duties of a landlord. Many electric companies and natural gas companies provide a free energy audit. That would be my first step. Also, look for other incentives and rebates offered by the utility company. If your tenant is low income there may be a program available in your community that would do the insulation job for free or at a reduced price.

If you do proper weatherizing of the home, you will benefit in it being more attractive to prospective tenants and thus more marketable. To leave it as it is, with the tenant paying for a high heating bill, may be enough to drive the tenant away. You could lose more money on vacancies than you would spend on properly insulating the home.

Michele Fischer · Answer

In 2011 it cost us $2600 to insulate a house; they bore holes from the outside and sprayed it in.  It has made the house so much cozier, easier to rent and keep rented.  People can't afford to live in units with exceptionally high utility costs.

Ken Hipp · Answer

think of it as another income stream. Instead of the tenant paying the utility co. they will be paying you. Insulate and have the tenant pay through increased rents. You will find it will only take 2-3 years to pay for the insulation. Remember......easier to keep a good tenant, than to find a new one.

Howard Manning · Answer

You can rent a blow in attic machine from L-- or HD and insulate attic easily yourself for cheap.  Insulating crawl space can be done fairly cheap if you are willing to do it yourself.  Walls can be insulated by drilling 3" holes between studs and filling with pump in insulation.  This requires a little more skill but  can be done fairly quickly and reasonable cost.  It will require plugging the holes and painting over them.  PM me for phone number if you'd like more details.

Chris K. · Answer

If it was your personal residence would you insulate it or would you just say "it wouldn't really benefit me to pay to insulate it?

David Krulac · Answer

Jimmy S.

If you have natural gas available convert to that save up to 50%

Insulate the attic, over-insulate like R-50, the little bit more of insulation is low costs when you already have the equipment there and the material and ready to blow in.

Windows are expensive, but we've done that also.

And even though expensive we have insulated walls in some cases.

It pays in tenants staying, not moving out and your ability to raise rents for a low heat costs house.

Mark Brogan · Answer

my opinion if u want tenants to stay long term u need to insulate if they cant afford high rent and electric they will leave

good luck Jimmy S.

Roy N. · Answer

Jimmy S.

There are lots of landlords here who own old building stock (Queen Anne, Second Empire, Victorian, etc) which predate insulation.  Their idea of business improvement is to switch to electric resistance heating (aka baseboards) and stick their tenants with $400 - $800 heating bills in the middle of winter.

I love these landlords as they supply us with amazing tenants.  We also own buildings on the same streets, but when we acquire one of these old gems, we gut the interior, insulate the walls to R20 or better (space is sometimes a factor) and air seal, replace windows and doors and put R50+ of insulation in the attic.  Amongst these 100+ year old properties our rehabs have reduced energy costs by 60 - 75%.

Tenant turnover is minimal and, if the need arises, we can easily compete by offering rent with utilities included.

Improving the envelope should have been done before installing the heat pump ... now you are just more efficiently heating he neighbourhood ;-)

Charles P. · Answer

Hi, First check out the site http://dsireusa.org/ they maintain a database of programs for energy efficiency state by state. Then find and get an energy audit done on the house that's not too expensive, some utilities will do these as mentioned earlier. You can check out BPI.org to find a certified home tester in your area. They will help you determine a scope of work for the property.

Thanks

insulate old house or not?

Most Popular Reply