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Save money on your electric bill
No, this is not a scam.
In the current "Stickler" thread the issue of energy consumption for Mark's house came up. I wanted to offer up a tip that may help save some energy.
When we built our house we did everything we could to make it as tight as we could. When the house was complete an energy auditor came out and did a blower door test, certifying our house as a "super good cents" house which should mean low electric bills. The house had a 0.30 ACH (Air changes per hour) rate which is very good.
In spite of all this planning and certifying our bills were consistently a lot higher than projected.
We have over 60 recessed light fixtures in our house. These were all supposed to be Air-Loc fixtures to keep air exfiltration from occuring, but they instead installed Air-Loc READY fixtures. When I held a smoke stick near the fixture I could watch the smoke rise up through the fixture.
The manufacturer of our fixtures, Juno, sells gaskets that are made to seal Air-Loc ready fixtures and make them Air-Loc fixtures. These gaskets are dirt cheap - less than $2 each.
When I bought and installed these gaskets our electric bill dropped by 20%/month. That was like a two-month payback, and my wife has commented that the house feels a lot less drafty.
So, if you have recessed light fixtures this is something to look into.
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Save money on your electric bill
These are mostly long-neck halogen fixtures. The only exceptions are the wet area fixtures in the bathrooms that are incandescent. I should mention that the wet area fixtures were a no-name brand so I just caulked those around the perimeter where the fixture pokes through the ceiling sheetrock.
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Save money on your electric bill
Insulation is very important but it doesn't stop air movement. We have cellulose insulation, R21 in the walls and R43 in the attic so I was very surprised at the difference the air-loc fixture gaskets made.
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Our house has vapor barriers but that doesn't solve the problem. The heat loss is caused by air exfiltration through the penetrations cut in the sheetrock and vapor barrier for the fixture. You can't cut those penetrations tight enough to eliminate gaps through which air can leak.
AC brings up a good point. In my case the fixtures were all approved for direct contact with insulation, but if you're retrofitting you need to check this to prevent a fire.
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Tom, are you thinking that they would build the ceiling and install all the light fixtures and then install the vapor barrier on top of the whole thing before insulating?
That seems to make some sense and I'm not sure why they don't do it that way. One drawback may be an air gap between sheetrock and the vapor barrier that would lay on top of the ceiling joists, but I'm not sure if that would be a problem or not. Another problem may be the fact that putting 12-14" of insulation on top of vapor barrier may cause the vapor barrier to tear through, especially as it ages and becomes more brittle.
I know I wouldn't to work in attic built that way.
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10-28-2003, 18:59 
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