quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
Update
I've been on the roof half a dozen times in the last year, never noticed the 2 ridge vents that are there.
So, I've got ridge vents.

On to other methods to bring down summertime heat up there:
Radiant barrier on the underside of the roof?
Add insulation to the existing & over the converted garage?

Both seem viable DIY projects

Both of those will help some. I’ve done both, and a lot more. But it’s the law of diminishing returns. First and foremost before doing either I would get two things done and in this order. Trust me, my house was built in 1979 and I’ve gone down this rabbit hole for 17 years. First, find a reputable roofer in your area. Have them come check air movement in the attic. I ended up putting more than double the soffits in when we did the first roof replacement. I can go up there at any time of the year and feel the air movement. Get that done first. Then blow in the insulation over your garage. It does help. When I had mine blown in I was insistent they do the garage also as many people will skip that and they shouldn’t as it does help even out attic temps. Then the radiant barrier will help some too. I’ve known my roofer for 17 years and ridge venting is still the best solution in TX.

The other thing I would suggest is getting an energy study done. They’ll check for leaks at doors, at windows, your HVAC runs throughout the house. I mean I replaced every fucking window in the house. Went from single pane to thermally broken aluminum dual panes with glass (Don Young windows), replaced exterior and interior doors, and a few more things. This era of home is built better than most newer homes here. If you ever see those subdivisions they put in, where the houses are real got damn close to each other, uncomfortably close, well half a dozen contractors have told me they just aren’t built like my home or homes built in the late 70’s. They slap them together now, and fast and it’s just not the same. They were built better back then but they are not sealed up, or insulated like a good new built home. The only thing I haven’t done, is something you could check to see if they do there, is see if an insulation company around you does the thing where they drill holes into your exterior brick and inject the foam insulation into all your exterior walls. The guys I used for insulation, radiant barrier, they used to do it but quit doing it because it can cause some issues. Doing that is better when the place was designed for it.

Thanks, Pre, that all makes sense, and given we're in similar climate (though your area has been hotter than Houston this week) we can relate on that.
This summer is just exceptional due to the consistent heat with no respite overnight.

I think I have great soffit coverage, if not maybe too much. I'd have to take another look around the house.

Our master closet was an add-on by the prior owners, and is definitely under insulated, but has no attic access to it, so I'd have to cut a hole to make above access, it's noticeably hotter in the daytime compared to the master bedroom.

Sounds like you have some good suggestions, since you have the offset vents and soffit vents in place then it's time to look at how to improve the home, kind of where we are...

Like the idea of getting a roofer out to analyze the flow, see if you could use another vent or improve the soffit vents, get more flow.

Insulating the garage is a good thing since you have air out there that you plan to use as an office.

Cut out the air supply to the garage, it's draining air from the current AC supply that could be better used inside.

Check the insulation level, add more, blow in over the whole house and since you'll eventually use the garage as an office with the mini split, do it as well.

See what that does for your AC/Heat bills

Check with your power company, they may have a different plan for off peak power use, change the pool pump to run during those hours and not during peak power hours. Run the dryer only in non peak times, we have a plan you can subscribe to that you get better rates for doing this.



The next steps are big money

Windows if you don't have modern double or triple pane windows

New Higher Seer AC

Add solar - you might benefit from a smaller than needed to run the whole house system, something that would cover say half your needs to keep the bill down. Check Tesla Solar,

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
Radiant barrier on the underside of the roof?

Several of my coworkers have had success lowering their electric bills by retrofitting radiant barrier in the attic. They DIY'd but did it in "winter" not the peak of summer.

House was heavily remodeled sometime around 5 years ago.

All new windows & the attic insulation looks like fairly new blown-in
Full AC system was replaced at that time, not sure the SEER rating on the unit

We are on a elec plan that has free nights, 8pm-5am, we run the pool system at that time, similar to the setup we had at our old house, also when we crank the AC temp down

With the outdoor temps so high, I've had the split in the 'garage' running at 78* just to offset the heat in there a bit, I'd assume that's keeping the rest of the house from drawing hot air from the single register in there & hopefully stopping some of the attic heat from leeching into the space through the attic door in there.
I'll likely add one of the zipper foam 'tents' like we have in the hallway attic access, seems to do a good job of blocking a lot of heat intrusion into the living space.

I'll try to get up in the attic today, before it gets over 100* outside & take a look at the soffit vents.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
Radiant barrier on the underside of the roof?

Several of my coworkers have had success lowering their electric bills by retrofitting radiant barrier in the attic. They DIY'd but did it in "winter" not the peak of summer.

Most definitely wouldn't attempt in this heat, unless I could start at like 4AM, over the course of multiple days.
Need to get up there & measure a bit to get an estimate of how much I'd need & rafter spacing.

Since the previous owners blew in more insulation one thing to look for is if the soffit is actually venting or if they plugged off the air flow.

My brother and Dad were going to DIY blow in insulation at my brother's old place. I talked my brother into installing rafter baffles over the soffit prior to blowing in insulation to keep the soffit flowing air. His project was a success (lowered AC bill) and he didn't get any icicles that winter (he lives in Upper Midwest) which would've been a sign of a hot attic.

I saw those soffit baffles when I was reading into radiant barrier DIY yesterday.

quote:

With the outdoor temps so high, I've had the split in the 'garage' running at 78* just to offset the heat

Probably a good bit of your bill increase, running AC in an un insulated space.

The point on the vent is we had one in my garage, and the ac folks all said it was a waste as you were putting cold air into a non insulated space. Your AC unit has a specific amount of capacity, directing some pct to an area that doesn't need it pulls it from areas that do.

Turn off the ac in the garage see how that does.

Otherwise it sounds like you have done much of what you can outside of putting solar on

Running the split is a new addition, not part of the prior $$ elec bills.
It doesn't run often to maintain 78* in there. It get a lot of shade. But will see what closing that register off does overall, with the split off.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
House was heavily remodeled sometime around 5 years ago.

All new windows & the attic insulation looks like fairly new blown-in
Full AC system was replaced at that time, not sure the SEER rating on the unit

Sounds like the previous owners, or whomever, did the most that they could. You’re in the same boat as I am with this era of home in TX. You want to kick its ass? Get some land, and put a barndo on it where you can insulate the holy fuck out of it. Foam interior and exterior walls, attic, etc. I’ve already got my building plans, cost, etc, for everything sans the interior finish out of the living space (cabinets, tile, blah). Pad/site, as well as city power run into it, digging a well also, power runs from the curb, and fiber. My current house I even have 35 panels on the roof which cover about 40% of it so I’m getting the sun blocked on almost half the house. I’ve done everything but inject the exterior walls with foam as I said, so more than most, and my AC is just running and running. It was like 90 degrees at 2am when I went to bed. 104-105 peak temps for the next week. I’m just hoping my AC system doesn’t go down during this. I thought when I did the insulation, radiant barrier, new windows, new exterior doors, new HVAC, blah blah, it’d be this night and day deal. It never was. Small increments that helped but unless the interior and exterior walls are injected with foam to provide better wall insulation I’ve hit the max. These homes are just inefficient, period, in my opinion. The things I can do with a barndo are a massive leap. My friend has one, built in 1999. He has I think a 1200 sq foot garage and he had 1200 sq ft of living space but added 800 sq ft for a total of 2000 sq ft living around 7 years ago. I go out to his place, and he has stained concrete throughout it, I mean it’s night and day difference. On a big hill with no trees around it to block the sun, no solar, and his kwh bill is cheap and he keeps it cold. In almost 25 years the only thing that happened to that building is that week long freeze we had. He had some PEX freeze up in one corner of the building that is on an exterior wall. He cut the metal, broke out a blow torch to heat it up and get water moving again, then re-welded the metal he cut, shut back. I’m like that’s fucking it dude? He said yep about it.

I’m doubling down on all this. Not only did I buy well North of here, I’ve got dual water supplies laid out. City water at the curb but I’m also drilling a well. Fiber at the curb but will have satellite backup. This time I’ll be putting the solar panels on the ground and putting them on a timer to rotate throughout the day. But also doing a small windmill, inverter, battery backup, and a Generac. Whole goal is to be able to keep the place at 70 degrees year round. Have fun and best of luck. I’ve done this song and dance for 17 years now. Man, it’s exhausting.

Yeah, moving isn't in the cards at the moment, unless we hit the lotto jackpot.
I'm all for a barndo, with a large garage/shop space & a couple car lifts.
My wife wants land & I'll for it, but for the time being, need to be commute-able to IAH.

Some good tips in the this thread & some things to look into. Just avoiding going up into the oven above the house.

Wouldn't adding a radiant barrier to the bottom of the roof increase the heat load on the shingles, thus reducing their lifespan?

I dunno... attics get hot in summertime. That's the nature of attics. I haven't been up in ours in the dead of summer since the roof was re-roofed, ridge and hip vents replaced the cans that used to be up there, and a few more soffit vents were unblocked, but, I assume it's pretty hot up there.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Wouldn't adding a radiant barrier to the bottom of the roof increase the heat load on the shingles, thus reducing their lifespan?

I dunno... attics get hot in summertime. That's the nature of attics. I haven't been up in ours in the dead of summer since the roof was re-roofed, ridge and hip vents replaced the cans that used to be up there, and a few more soffit vents were unblocked, but, I assume it's pretty hot up there.

One of the articles on RB that I Was reading yesterday cited a study done that seemed to disprove reduced shingle life due to RB installation.
Read quite a few, so I'm having trouble finding it again.

I'll reiterate, the cost of fuel ie the cost of power is rising so quickly that outside of going off the grid, you'll be lucky to keep up with offsetting the increase in your bill from a pure cost increase basis.

Our bill in June was damn near $700 vs $500 last year and the kWH used was within 100 of last year.

Rate increases are a big part of it. 10 years ago or so a buddy that has a hedge fund said it was predicted that one day the cost to run you house ie Electric, Gas, Oil combined could be more than the mortgage payment...

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
I'll reiterate, the cost of fuel ie the cost of power is rising so quickly that outside of going off the grid, you'll be lucky to keep up with offsetting the increase in your bill from a pure cost increase basis.

Our bill in June was damn near $700 vs $500 last year and the kWH used was within 100 of last year.

Rate increases are a big part of it. 10 years ago or so a buddy that has a hedge fund said it was predicted that one day the cost to run you house ie Electric, Gas, Oil combined could be more than the mortgage payment...

Yeah, the TDU charges are about 20% of the bill.
Also noticed a $70 'comfort credit', otherwise our bill would've been a bit over $700
Without the free nights, the bill would've been $1200

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
I'll reiterate, the cost of fuel ie the cost of power is rising so quickly that outside of going off the grid, you'll be lucky to keep up with offsetting the increase in your bill from a pure cost increase basis.

Our bill in June was damn near $700 vs $500 last year and the kWH used was within 100 of last year.

Rate increases are a big part of it. 10 years ago or so a buddy that has a hedge fund said it was predicted that one day the cost to run you house ie Electric, Gas, Oil combined could be more than the mortgage payment...

Very important distinction to make, even when using something like a Sense Energy Monitor (or monitoring and calculating KWH use, which is what I do), tracking KWH usage on similar temperature days/months, is the only way to quantify actual savings. Comparing like KWH usage days from 2021 to to 2023 my cost per KWH has increased >25% over that time frame, which is of course ridiculous... Just wait until supply drops and prices climb even more, which is inevitable due to dot gov mandates, should be fun.

My HVAC power consumption over the last week and a half:

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Wouldn't adding a radiant barrier to the bottom of the roof increase the heat load on the shingles, thus reducing their lifespan?

Nah. I’ve checked. Been a full decade too. Only thing that ruins my shingles is the hail every 5-7 years when it hits. The radiant barrier paint, at this point, probably needs to be resprayed. It works, and no increase in wear.

I just got my June kwh bill. $158. But I have 35 panels on the house and keep the thermostat at 78 degrees (I wish I could do 72, but I just know the HVAC would break). Lease payment, monthly on the panels is $92 ($98.XX with tax). Without my panels I’d bet I’d be $500 a month right now. I’m very glad I pulled the trigger on the lease in 2014. Saves me probably 2k per year on energy bills.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
Yeah, moving isn't in the cards at the moment, unless we hit the lotto jackpot.
I'm all for a barndo, with a large garage/shop space & a couple car lifts.
My wife wants land & I'll for it, but for the time being, need to be commute-able to IAH.

Some good tips in the this thread & some things to look into. Just avoiding going up into the oven above the house.

Yup I understand. I’m in the same boat dude. I bought my house in ‘06, it’s appreciated like fuck and even when I bought it I got it for almost 25k under market. So I used some of my equity to buy the land where I want to move and live the rest of life. 5 acres, wish it was 10, 20 or more but I didn’t want to get out of hand. But getting a building built, finished out, so I can move everything in the garage is a pipe dream right now. I have to remodel the kitchen, bathrooms, and a few bedrooms on my current place and it has not hit the ceiling yet of appreciation. When it starts to flatten I’ll take out a construction loan, build the barndo, pay everyone off and should be no more mortgage. Could be 3 years or 5, but I pray to God every day, multiple times a day. I’ve had enough with all these millions that moved here. HR has not approved my remote worker status yet (mgmt has) or I’d probably be doing some foolish shit, buying another got damn house I don’t want, so I could go now.

I don’t know what happened either dude. Used to I’d do 80 degrees in the day, 79 at night. Now I can’t put up with that and leave it at 78 day and night. I live for the day I can move and keep that fucker at 70-72 in the summer.

A few attic photos. Looks like we have full length soffit vents, at least in the front, where they're more easily visible [from the attic]