I have told you on more than one occasion that I literally spent 20 years remodeling and adding on to our house in California. One of my goals was to make the house energy efficient.
The house was a typical 1,600 square feet ranch style house with cathedral ceilings and a 4 ton A/C unit. The rule of thumb in air conditioning is 1 ton cooling capacity for every 400 square feet. So, it was perfectly sized when it was built in 1958.
When we bought it in 1989, it was just under 2,000 square feet. It still had a 4 ton unit. Not perfectly sized…
The undersized A/C unit combined with the vaulted, open beam ceilings in the San Fernando Valley made for a very hot house. That air conditioner would run all day and we would never see 90º!
So, I installed ceilings and insulation, redid the A/C ducting etc., etc. and got the house to where it was truly live-able. We only used the air conditioning on days when the temperature went over 95º.
Near the end of my time in California, I learned about radiant barrier foil and installed it in our new kitchen addition. I never really got to see if it worked.
When I finished the job, I had 1 1/2 boxes left over. Then, the man who introduced me to the product gave me another box that he had left over. Since it costs about &70 a box and I couldn’t think of anyone who would actually use it, I brought them with me to Kansas City.
Do you remember that I told you that I discovered that the master bedroom is really just a very large sauna? What do you think was the first step that I took to try to solve the problem?
You guessed it…that foil that I brought with me because it was too expensive to throw away!
And…guess what?
It is already working. I have only finished about half of the area I plan to cover and the room is already noticeably cooler!
Yahoo! I think my plan is going to work!
