More Barn Decisions

Boy, the fun just never stops with this barn. I mean that in a good way, of course. In light of the insulation requirements that we’ve learned about, I contacted the local spray foam guy to come have a look, and it went fine, meaning that he actually returned our call and actually showed up when he said he would. I’m finding it difficult to achieve reliability with these contractors.

The insulation guy came over and looked at the barn, said that with the fiberglass insulation on the walls, we were meeting minimum R-value standards, though I’m guessing he doesn’t approve of going the bare minimum since he’s an efficiency sort of guy, but such is life. He did, however, compliment SH on the job he’d done with the foam board vents, and then took some measurements. He was a really cool guy and I found the meeting very informative. He said he’d send us some numbers as well our options, so that’s a good thing.

We also have to make some decisions about heating, and this is where things get really interesting. In the beginning, the first suggestion was a propane boiler with baseboard heating, which is a standard, run of the mill idea. We thought sure, why not? The price tag was outrageous, over $10,000, and that’s not even including the propane hookup. We learned later that a propane boiler is not the best choice, either, but our initial hesitation was based solely on the high price tag. With boilers and baseboard heating you also run into problems with lines that freeze and burst, not to mention decay over time, and boilers need eventually need costly maintenance. Our house has a boiler, so these are things we may face in the future. Also, since the lines were running in the walls, he would have needed to have added more antifreeze, which increases corrosion.

Anyway, we got away from the boiler and thought of Rennai heaters. We even had the Irving guy (nice guy) come and give an estimate, which wasn’t cheap, either. For three room heaters and a hot water heater, we were looking at about the same price as a boiler, except without the hassles of pipes throughout the walls, thus removing the worry of them freezing.

Then we talked to our local energy guru, CF, who has a energy efficiency consulting company. He came over, assessed our insulation shortcomings, and then said the way to go is a heat pump, also known as a mini-split system. It works on the same principal as a ground source heat exchange system, except that it’s above ground. It works like an air conditioner in reverse, and they are supposed to be very efficient and a great way to reduce oil or propane consumption. Plus, there are no water lines to burst, so the only pipes are focused on one end of the house.

After talking it over, we thought it was the way to go, and talking to other folks, they seem to agree. The wave of the future, perhaps? We just learned that Dartmouth College just installed a big heat pump system, so they are endorsing it.

So as it stands, we are going heat pump, but that could change by next week. Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to yum9me for the pic.