Weatherizing and Insulating in Barre, Montpelier, and Northfield

News flash:  It gets COLD up here.  The goal in winter is to keep homes in Montpelier and Barre warm and comfortable.  The most important thing to be aware of with insulation, other than the safety issues of urea formaldehyde and asbestos (covered elsewhere), is the R value, or the insulating factor. The higher the number, the better the insulator.

Don't be too shocked if the insulation in the 15 year old home you're considering isn't near the R value of a brand new home. You can almost always save money on your heating bill by beefing up the insulation.  The payback period depends on what you need to do, and how bad the insulation is right now.  For example, someone from Montpelier Construction did an energy audit on one of my buildings near Hubbard Park in Montpelier.  For less than $2000 he figured I could cut my oil use by 30-40%.  That's a fast payback at $3 per gallon.

It's less about insulating, and more about airsealing.  My suggestion is to plan on having an energy audit done, and if it makes sense, make the house a little tighter.  You'll be more comfy and you'll save money.

Plus, Efficiency Vermont has incentives for weatherizing, as does the City of Montpelier--they threw in a free audit, and then Efficiency Vermont credited a sizeable chunk of the cost of the insulating and airsealing.

I'm happy to get you in touch with people who can make your house in Montpelier or Barre more efficient.  Just call or send an email

 More on insulation is available here.  But I didn't write it, so it might sound kind of dorky.