I’ve started watching my time-of-use electricity consumption. Here is a chart for yesterday (Monday)
BTW, we also use Bullfrog power so the pricing does not apply to us (Bullfrog power is a long-term contract for green power produced using wind turbines.)
April 27, 2010
February 12, 2010
Somehow all my words of wisdom did not get saved as a draft. Suffice it to say that eventually the siding did get finished and I then moved on to replacing the flat roof. 
The roof previously was not properly sloped and water pooled in the middle. Birds loved this but it wasn’t that great structurally. To make things worse, water from the roof poured onto the garage roof which caused problems when there was heavy rain (as last spring.). When the roof was repaired they removed the wood and reinforced the posts with Blu Wood. They sloped it to the rear of the house and added new eavestroughs there which directed the rain to the back yard (and rain barrels.)
July 26, 2009
No sooner had I published my previous post than I had reason to question some of the decisions I made when the insulation was being installed.
Late yesterday afternoon the heavens opened. While it was still raining we noticed that water was pouring into the attached garage and from there into the basement. The basement wasn’t flooded. There was just a pool of water at the bottom of the steps into the garage. But now I am really concerned that the leak that I thought I had repaired by redoing the garage roof and adding the new siding has been exacerbated instead of repaired and that having the new siding may make it hard to identify the source of the leak and the insulation may also get soaked. Fortunately Roxul (the mineral fibre insulation that we used) is not damaged by water but presumably the wood studs could be.
It is going to take some time to sort this out, especially when the roofing company has been very difficult to deal with, and they will probably point a finger at the siding company. Stay tuned …
July 25, 2009
Apart from a few minor items, the exterior insulation and siding is in place along about 1/2 of the area of our house. It is covers the east double brick wall and all 3 sides of the wooden addition. It has been a long process … longer than hoped for due to a lot of rainy days. This has caused us to have to get an on street parking permit because the driveway was being used for supplies and equipment. It is fortunate that there is a garage where some of the more valuable equipment could be stored.
It turned out that the strapping was 8 ins from wall and we could add an additional 2 ins of insulation. That allowed another R7 to be added to the existing R22 for a total of R29.
On the addition there was already 4 ins studding and insulation on the first floor. On the second floor the studding is 6 ins with plywood attached to that and then a further 8 ins of studs before the siding making a total of 14 ins of insulation (on the top floor.) That is R29 + R22 (R51) so it will be very warm. On the first floor it will be a total of 12 ins (R 44.)
As expected on an old house, complications arose. One was the fact that the vent pipes for the high efficiency gas furnace were in the way of the siding and had to be extended. Unfortunately the standard for this vent had changed so that the existing plastic could not be extended and has to be replaced entirely. The first quote for doing this work was around $1000 which I declined since they wanted to charge $18/foot of vent + labour. (Unfortunately another company who quoted $2.50/foot and agreed to do the work has been a no show.)
Another problem – the deck adjacent to the addition needed to be cut back to allow the siding to be attached correctly. It still is not restored. Then the fence between my property and the neighbour’s needed to be cut in order to add insulation to the back of the addition. That needs to be replaced.
Still to be done – repairs to the drywall on the interior to the addition – to determine the extent of the water damage I had removed some of it.
I’m happy with the new siding although the deeper window wells will take some getting used to.
June 23, 2009
I managed to get the contractor I am working with (Robert Valitutti of P.C.L. Interior & Exterior Finishes http://www.pclfinishes.com/) to agree to installing R22 under the new siding. Work is in progress as I write this.
The insulation is Roxul (mineral) insulation. There is 2 by 6 inch strapping attached to the brick. Given that there are termites (and carpenter ants) in my neighbourhood I insisted on all wood being treated with insect repellent. He is using Blue Wood … the “Blu” is a brand name.
After the strapping and insulation are installed he will cover it with Typar (a vapour barrier) and finally the James Hardie fibre cement siding.
The problem with using 2 by 6 strapping (to handle the R22 insulation) is that it could be too heavy to support the siding. He resolved this problem by adding a bottom plate which will support the strapping and keep the siding from being in contact with the ground.
Another problem – there is insect damage to the wooden addition at the rear of the house. There had been a leak in the roof that had gone undetected – inviting insects to do their thing. I wanted all of the siding removed right down to the existing frame in order to determine the extent of the damage … it was not pretty. I wanted any damaged wood replaced.
This is happening right now. After the wood is repaired (the existing 2 by 4 is being replaced with more Blu wood) plywood will be added and then more 2 by 6 strapping and R22 insulation. The result will be that the addition will have R39 … R19 on the interior of the plywood and R22 on the exterior.
Removing the existing siding exposed a few gaps in the existing interior wall which explains why there were drafts there.
