Energy audit worth it?

Last time. I upgraded the furnace and did the window caulking.
I believe i paid $600 for auditing ( I don't know why it so expensive for 1 hour of job )
I think I got pad back from Enbridge $1800
For me it was worth it because my furnace died. And I did the window caulking.

The rebate eligibility for air sealing is determined by if you hit the target blower door test result during the post audit - a reduction by a certain amount.

So you should not depend on air sealing to make you eligible, you could do the work and find out that the air sealing didn't drop leakage enough to quality as an upgrade, hence eliminating eligibility to the rebate for attic insulation upgrade.

A 20 year old home should not be very leaky to begin with so it may be hard to hit the target.

Basement insulation upgrades are under-rated and can save more energy than adding attic insulation.
A 20 year old home most likely already has at least R-32 in the attic (to comply with code at the time), and even doubling won't save much in absolute terms. By the time you have R-32, heat loss to the attic isn't very high to begin with.

Whereas a lot of basements were insulated to R12, only half height.

The law of diminishing returns applies to insulation.

Going from nothing to R10-12 saves an enormous amount of energy.
Going from that to R20-R24 saves a modest amount of energy.
Beyond that, not much at all.

Hi,

Would like to know how I can further do basement insulation with the type of wall/ceilings I have (the walls are like wood boards). The ceiling is a soft material you can poke through. Attached a picture as an example.

Also, I did find a gap in the basement wall where cool air can drift in. What would be the best material to use/way to seal it. Attached 2 pictures for example.

Do the audit. Attic Insulation + air sealing attic penetrations, caulking and outlet covers.

We did it, was a huge savings and would do it again in a heartbeat

Almost guarantee that there's no insulation behind the wood panelling. That stuff was super popular in the 70's and back then insulation wasn't really considered when building walls. I know we didn't have any behind our wood panels when we renovated.

exrcoupe wrote: ↑ Almost guarantee that there's no insulation behind the wood panelling. That stuff was super popular in the 70's and back then insulation wasn't really considered when building walls. I know we didn't have any behind our wood panels when we renovated.

Thanks for the insight. Did you end up replacing the wood panels with drywall + insulation when you renovated? if so what was the ballpark cost to do so?

Yeah, we did that in the basement. We renovated the whole space, so I can’t break out the wall/insulation costs.

CEOofPopeyes wrote: ↑ Hi,

Would like to know how I can further do basement insulation with the type of wall/ceilings I have (the walls are like wood boards). The ceiling is a soft material you can poke through. Attached a picture as an example.

Also, I did find a gap in the basement wall where cool air can drift in. What would be the best material to use/way to seal it. Attached 2 pictures for example.

take off a electrical plate and you will see if its insulated or not.