Hi All, I've spent a bunch of time using the search function and wasn't able to find exactly what I was looking for, so I'm sorry if this is a topic that has been beaten to death. I've lived in my house for 1 year this month and plan to install Geothermal to replace my propane furnace this fall. I live in Northern Ohio, about 10 miles in from the lake. My home is a 1,800 sq ft brick ranch. 1800 sq ft unfinished basement. I added R30 fiberglass insulation in the attic, on top of the ~6" of old blown in insulation. Now my focus is the walls. Looking through and poking through outlets, I've been unable to find any insulation, I'm assuming the house was built with just black board. (House was built in 1969) I'm guessing the heat loss has to be extreme with this setup. I have the old style dry wall with a heavy coat of hand applied plaster in the house. In my opinion, insulating from the inside of the house is not an option. Even just a hole to blow in insulation, it's not worth the time, mess and expense to try and do that. There are parts of the house where it'd be impossible to do because of cabinets, tile, etc. I've gotten a quote for injecting foam from the exterior of the home. (Which Dana1 gave me some concerns about that) So my question is...is it possible to insulate from the basement, by drilling a hole in the sill plate and pushing a tube up to the top? And ONLY a hole in the basement? It'd be impossible to create a hole from the attic. I was all set for the foam insulation (even the high cost) but luckily Dana convinced me to pump the brakes. Time to start over and see what else is out there. Or am I stuck with making a huge mess inside of my house?

We converted 1955 brick ranch with tuck-under garage last year. This was and old warm-air only heating system. When performing the room-by-room, ACCA Manual 'J' we figured an R-5 for walls, foamed a hot roof R-27 and the owner planned to fill the attic late last fall. Since the house was in original condition no structural alterations were allowed save the holes needed for AC and ERV. To offset the "cold" walls and preserve the original oak floors we suggested sub-floor radiant panels.

The basement and tuck-under garage were all torn out and 2" of XPS installed, plumbing, heated driveway, wall framed out and foamed from the basement slab to the critical rim joist. We installed extruded aluminum plates to heat the main level, a condensing boiler to heat DHW, floors and heat the drive.

The design temperature in the system is 120° F. This is an ideal number for condensing boilers and a functional number for a GSHP. Insulation is not the only way to skin the cat.

We converted 1955 brick ranch with tuck-under garage last year. This was and old warm-air only heating system. When performing the room-by-room, ACCA Manual 'J' we figured an R-5 for walls, foamed a hot roof R-27 and the owner planned to fill the attic late last fall. Since the house was in original condition no structural alterations were allowed save the holes needed for AC and ERV. To offset the "cold" walls and preserve the original oak floors we suggested sub-floor radiant panels.

The basement and tuck-under garage were all torn out and 2" of XPS installed, plumbing, heated driveway, wall framed out and foamed from the basement slab to the critical rim joist. We installed extruded aluminum plates to heat the main level, a condensing boiler to heat DHW, floors and heat the drive.

The design temperature in the system is 120° F. This is an ideal number for condensing boilers and a functional number for a GSHP. Insulation is not the only way to skin the cat.

When foam was on the table as an option, the cost was easily justified by the ease of installation and total sealing capabilities. Now that it is off the table....I don't know.

My HVAC Geo vendor did a heat load calc (assuming this is the Manual 'J'). He entered it with no insulation in my exterior walls, so R value of 0. The heat loads went up to ~88k btu

Entering an R Value of say, R13, it dropped down to 55k btu, i.e. smaller geo system.

I'm really lost on how to proceed. I was going to insulate, then have the geo installed based on the R-Value of the exterior insulation.

There is on such thing as a R-value of zero. If you have a wall you have R. Find out how how the wall was built and with what components and get a better conctractor or designer.

Yes, I'm aware there is an R-Value with a wall. I was implying that my current setup compared to a fully insulated wall, that there would be a significant difference. My sarcasm didn't come through very well. My apologizes.

I have been accused, with a hint of truth, of the same foible. I can tell you that sarcasm is allowed and tolerated most of the time.

My point is that insulation is not mandatory or necessarily the best way to lower your carbon footprint/fuel bills. We work on many old Victorian mansions here in St. Paul. You can imagine the fuel bills. We do specify insulation where it makes sense, good ROI or improved comfort, air sealing etc. But before we start insulating and long before we start replacing windows in these historic treasures, we replace atmospheric low-efficiency boilers with sealed-combustion condensing boilers (furnaces if you like). A condensing boiler will operate on weather sensitive controls lowering design water temperatures and the heat load with fuel savings in the 10-50% range.

Air-to-air and air-to-water heat pumps are similar in their improved energy to heat conversion. One has to look at all the options when renovating architecturally significant properties, even if you are the only one for whom they are significant.

Thanks for the feedback, glad to hear! It sure would help my wallet out some for at least a year, to avoid "needing" insulation.

We'll see what my Geo guy says and go from there.

It sure would help my wallet out some for at least a year, to avoid "needing" insulation.

Air sealing can be even more effective than a complete insulation makeover. Of course, with insulation upgrades you should automatically get the air sealing, but it is possible to make a dent armed with some caulk, canned foam and stuffing.

I was pretty surprised, my house felt pretty constant temperature this winter. When we had the very cold temps with -40 windchill, that helped point out where the doors needed to be sealed up a little bit better. Otherwise, with the brick, it doesn't feel drafty.