It’s hard not to bring your work home with you – especially when your work focuses on homes. That explains why the dinner-table conversation at my house tends to include insulation, basement encapsulation, and the potential of PACE and PowerSavers to transform Maine’s energy landscape.
It also explains why my seven-year-old knows so much about what’s behind our walls. A few minutes with an infrared camera confirmed her worst suspicions: her brother has more insulation than she does.
Let me explain. Like a fair number of Evergreen Home Performance customers, I’m tackling the energy efficiency of my 1856 farmhouse in stages. The first priority was making the barn-turned-playroom into livable space – a project that made the whole family happy and comfortable, and saved us a good chunk of change in heating costs. Basement encapsulation is likely to come next, and we’ll get to blowing insulation into the empty wall cavities eventually.
“Eventually” can’t come soon enough for the girl with the least-insulated bedroom, especially now that she’s learned the truth about home performance and year-round comfort. It happened like this, during last week’s sweltering weather:
Her: “Well, at least I’m happy I don’t have insulation in my walls NOW. That means my bedroom is cooler, right?”
Me: “Hmmm. Actually, insulation keeps you warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.”
Her: “What?! That is TOTALLY NOT FAIR! I bet all of my friends have insulation in THEIR walls!”
Once she settled down a bit, she managed a more reasonable response: “Mom, could you please get Evergreen to come do an insulation project so I’m not freezing in the winter and boiling in the summer?”
Will do, sweetie.