subject: A Novel Approach To Insulating A Home For Far Less Money With A Nice Side Benefit Everyone Needs [print this page] I recently had an idea that is very tantalizing.
It occurred to me that surrounding the house with storage cabinets on all the outside walls would also help insulate the place and make it more energy efficient.
My house is already pretty good from the standpoint of energy efficiency. It is earth sheltered on the entire back of the first floor and the garage. I have never had anything freeze in our garage even though outside temperatures can be well below zero in winter.
We also dont have to air condition in our mountain location, which saves us hundreds of dollars a year.
In summer we get lots of shade from the hardwood trees that are all around us. But in winter the leaves fall and we get good passive solar heat gain.
On the bad side we have a cathedral ceiling in our living room. On cold winter days with no sun we have to heat with electric baseboard heat or our wood stove.
We want to improve on this issue by lowering the ceiling and insulating the resulting attic space.
We also plan on building storage cabinets around the whole perimeter of the upstairs rooms with doors that will be salvaged.
The stuff we store in the cabinets will act as insulation, as will the enclosed air spaces.
We all need all the storage we can get. I like for all my stuff to be out of sight unless Im using it. I dont like to display my china or crystal or anything else except wall art, some of which I will use as cabinet doors.
I even like to keep books out of sight unless Im reading them. Open bookshelves just look too messy to me.
Its important to me that all of my storage spaces be organized with nothing on the floors. My shoes are on stacking racks and most of my clothing is on hangers in closets. This sounds a little strange, but I like to be able to vacuum closets with nothing getting in the way of my vacuum cleaner.
Anyone can do what we are doing. We all need more storage and we all need more energy efficient houses. Surrounding the interior perimeter with storage could help us all.
