We relayed the results of our pressure test to our tech at our heat system manufacturer, and they believe that it was successful. So, we have begun closing it up.
The first step in closing it up consists of installing three distinct layers of insulation: reflective barrier, fluffy stuff, and rigid foam. Before we started insulating, we decided to insulate the supply (hot) manifolds with our low-e wrap. That went pretty smoothly. Then, Erika swept off the top of the foundation where the bottom of the house meets the concrete and I followed behind with the foamin' goo, caulking up the gaps where cold air blows in.
Next, we had a look at the reflective barrier:
It's on a huge roll, it's shiny on one side and brown on the other. It's twice as wide as we need for each joist bay, so we have to cut to length down the middle. The stuff get's stapled up into the joist bays, about two inches from the floor. Its purpose is to reflect the heat that escapes downward back up to the floor. We have to make about a one inch fold along each end so that we have a tab to staple.
It really wasn't bad at all. We did the entire basement in about an hour and a half, though we skipped a few areas because we need to maintain access to our manifold valves until we fill the system. No biggy.
We hope to get all of this in this weekend, which means some quality crawl space time. Over dinner, we thought about it: it's possible that within a couple of weeks, we may be feeling the warmth of this (what turned out to be) complicated system.
This morning, it was 58 degrees in the house.
- John
No comments:
Post a Comment