What is COSTCO doing?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David Meiland on May 18, 2012 at 9:52pm

Unbelievable. With all their money you'd think they would buy a clue.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Granda on May 21, 2012 at 8:20am

That is pretty incredible.If they have the kind of air leakage into the attic implied by their ice dam problems I expect condensation and associated issues.

It sounds like Costco isn't getting top grades for this service, even from friends: http://addictedtocostco.com/2008/10/07/have-you-used-costco-service...

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Permalink Reply by Bruce Navin on May 22, 2012 at 11:38am

Does anybody know how much this job may have cost-installed?

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Permalink Reply by Eric Lowry on May 24, 2012 at 8:25am

I want to know how they got inside Joe Lstiburek's attic.

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Permalink Reply by Craig Bird on May 24, 2012 at 10:00am

LOL, the only thing joe would let these guys touching his house is the door knob to get out the front door!

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Laycock on May 24, 2012 at 11:45am

They make a curious claim about "Almost all of the energy lost in your home is through emission (radiant heat transfer).".. as opposed to convection and conduction.  Seems a bit over the top. 

 

http://www.trustedhomeservices.com/eshield/energy-barrier.asp

 

 Maybe if you lived in a well sealed glass house....

 

Kevin

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Permalink Reply by Tom Barrett on May 31, 2012 at 10:09am

Even better is that he is claiming a 25% reduction in the home's energy bill - not heating bill, but the energy bill. The sad thing is people still buy these kind of claims.

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Permalink Reply by Joseph Novella on May 28, 2012 at 3:10pm

Has any credible building science study been conducted on the efficacy of radiant barriers in heating climates. I'm sure they work great in Florida to reduce cooling loads but to claim they work during the heating season in New England, it's impossible. 

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Permalink Reply by Craig Bird on May 29, 2012 at 8:19am

According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Clearinghouse, “Two field tests, one in Minnesota and one in Canada, both found that a radiant barrier placed over R-19 attic floor insulation (which is less than half the DOE minimum recommendation for those climates), found that the radiant barrier contributed to less than a 1% reduction in energy consumption for heating and cooling.” (sorry, couldn't find the actual study link)

And that was with R19. Any savings at all disappears when you consider most attics in a cold climate will have a higher R-value than R-19 and if they don't it will be much more cost effective to install an additional R30 blown fiberglass or cellulose.

Even if you were chasing these meager savings, a radiant barrier on the cold side of the insulation acts as a vapor barrier in the wrong location. Even if your using the perforated stuff you can have condensation freeze in the perforations and then wreak havoc on your insulation and possibly cause a huge mold problem.

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Permalink Reply by Joseph Novella on May 29, 2012 at 6:27am

The Lawrence Berkeley study is actually on cool roofs which is applying a reflective coating to the top side of roofs to reflect solar load. Lining an attic with tin foil is completely different and making the claim that is works in heating mode I think is outlandish and I won't buy it w/o some sound building science to back it up.

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Permalink Reply by Joseph Novella on May 29, 2012 at 9:06am

Here is the DOE Radiant Barrier Article link:

http://www.energysavers.gov/your_home/insulation_airsealing/index.c...

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Permalink Reply by Wayne fried getting on June 4, 2012 at 5:45am

This is for the Costco people...

If you want it done right, Call me.

Wayne

Radiant insulation systems.

www.radiantinsulsystems.com

Attachments:

• Rocco opencell hot roof.JPG, 43 KB
• Carson closed cell hot roof1.JPG, 101 KB

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