[airics]

Anyone do this in the summer? I know Scoop has mentioned this. Is it standard styrofoam? Special cut? Etc... Where to buy...and is it worth it? All windows ?

[OmegaSupreme]

it's foamboard from homedepot. it's a type of wall insulation.

i did this last summer and saved a huge amount off my electric. i painted the shiny silver side white, so it looked nice from outside and did not melt the neighbor's car

[Erratikmind]

Interesting . . . So, this board is place between the window and window coverings?

[ScoopLV]

This was one of the first things we did when we moved here and went with the Time of Use plan. Done right, it saves a lot of money. And, done right, you can't tell from the curb. Although the interior rooms look a bit ghetto that way. (No way around it -- there are big sheets of insulation in all the windows.) We just remove them and chuck the insulation in a hall closet if we're expecting guests.

[LVAllen]

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

This was one of the first things we did when we moved here and went with the Time of Use plan. Done right, it saves a lot of money. And, done right, you can't tell from the curb. Although the interior rooms look a bit ghetto that way. (No way around it -- there are big sheets of insulation in all the windows.) We just remove them and chuck the insulation in a hall closet if we're expecting guests.

Just curious - how do you manage air circulation with a swamp cooler if all of the windows are covered with insulation? This might be something I'm interested in doing for the kids' rooms upstairs (all western facing windows), but wouldn't the windows need to be open in order to cool the rooms down?

[ScoopLV]

We leave a couple north-facing windows open when we have the cooler running. We blow the moist air in from the west and vent it northwards.

[SGtoLV]

It's also a great idea to cut them to fit in your garage door panels

[ScoopLV]

Originally Posted by SGtoLV

It's also a great idea to cut them to fit in your garage door panels

Not as good as you might think. With the garage, the best bet is ventilation. The metal garage door heats up fast and is a giant heat pump so long as the sun beats on it. Insulation only slows the transfer of heat -- it doesn't stop it. So the insulation can actually trap heat in the garage and make it more difficult for that heat to dissipate.

While we have the insulation on the door, the best solution has been a powered fan, much like those found in attic gables, attached to a thermostat. When the heat gets above "X" the fan kicks on -- venting all the hot garage air outside.

[Erratikmind]

Nice! An exhaust can on a line voltage thermostat.

[MountainBiking]

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

Not as good as you might think. With the garage, the best bet is ventilation. The metal garage door heats up fast and is a giant heat pump so long as the sun beats on it. Insulation only slows the transfer of heat -- it doesn't stop it. So the insulation can actually trap heat in the garage and make it more difficult for that heat to dissipate.

While we have the insulation on the door, the best solution has been a powered fan, much like those found in attic gables, attached to a thermostat. When the heat gets above "X" the fan kicks on -- venting all the hot garage air outside.

These work great. We had one in the shop portion of one of our office suites. We set the thermostat at 80 degrees. When the shop reached 80 degrees the fan would turn on and suck out the heat. Worked great. Not too hard to install, too, if you can perform electrical work.

-Cheers.