Adding Insulation to Our Attic

I received a $10 off $50 coupon at Lowes Home Improvement with my Discover Card in the mail this week. These are a great excuse to start a home improvement project and I can see why Lowes finds it profitable to send this out.

After some thought I decided it was a perfect time to pick up $50 of insulation with the coupon and add some additional insulation in the attic of our house. After looking at the options I decided to go with 5 rolls of R30 fiberglass insulation as it was actually cheaper than the R19 for the same coverage. $9.97 for 31.25 sq feet of R30 which I believe is down from ~$15.87 last year.

I was able to roll out the insulation within 20 minutes and strategically applied it to areas where I suspect we have the greatest heat loss in our attic - a cathedral ceiling and the ceiling area of our 2-story foyer.

If I can just save $5/year in energy costs from this additional insulation I feel like I'm making a decent (10%+) rate of return on this investment. Add on top of that the 10% Federal Energy efficient tax credit and while I won't be able to actually measure the results, I do feel comfortable I'm getting a decent return on this investment, despite it being small change.

Am I crazy to think I can already tell a difference? I can't help but notice the temperature on our thermostat is staying higher through the night despite the HVAC being turned off.

Related in Energy Savings:

Water Heater Timer Project (Jan 19, 2014) I installed a timer on our electric water heater as my weekend project: Material Cost GE 15207 Hot Water Heater Timer $40.96 3/8" Clamp Connectors $1.65 10/2 wire (3 ft) $3.48 Total: $46.09 A couple years ago I participated in...

Energy Tip: Reapply Mastic on HVAC Seals (Aug 07, 2012) This past week, my family was headed out of the house for a brief vacation and I took the opportunity to reseal the joints in my HVAC system. I had long read that resealing HVAC joints would cut down energy...

Reduce Home Energy Costs (Jan 23, 2012) Regulars readers know over the past couple years I've had some focus on trying to reduce our household energy costs. We moved into our current home at the end of 2008 and it didn't take long for me to realize...