Energy Efficient Attic

Tyson found a local company that will give us a bunch of rebates for adding insulation to the attic. They are coming out next week to install the blown-in insulation. We won't get any rebates for the attic foil, but Tyson researched the foil, vs the spray on barrier and found that installing the foil barrier will prevent 97% of the radiant heat from coming into the attic, vs. the spray - which only prevents 15-79%, depending on brands and application method. That combined with the new insulation we'll be getting, and the new windows that we have in half of the house should save us a bundle on our utility bills. We should recoup all of our costs for the insulation and the foil in savings on our electric bill by the end of the summer.
Tyson and Terrence have been in the attic since 6am clearing out the attic and installing the foil. They were trying to get most of it done before the temperature got too intense. As of noon, they had the attic foil installed on an eighth of the ceiling, and they could already notice a difference in the overall temperature in there. Apparently it still feels like a sauna, but it's a cooler sauna than it was a couple of hours ago. When they called it quits for the day they were finished with about 1/4 of the attic. They'll work on the rest of it next weekend.

Tyson is planning to redo some of the duct work as well. Apparently when the house was originally built (in the late 1950's) electricity was so cheap that the builders didn't worry much about energy efficiency. The ducts are connected at each joint with two screws, so dirt and insulation from the attic can get inside the ducts, and then that debris is blown through the house via the air conditioning unit. He's going to clean the ducts out and reseal them before we have the crew come out and put more insulation in the attic.

Tonight Terrence, Tyson and I are meeting some friends at the Sports Bar to watch Rampage Jackson destroy Forest Griffin at UFC 86. It hasn't happened yet, so I suppose Forest could win if he has a miracle (remember when Serra got lucky and grabbed the victory from Georges St. Pierre?) but barring that, Jackson should win easily.