Why your insulation sucks...

[@ronniemanuel6287]

Great to see you again! Insulation is one of my favorite topics ! My wife says that I am an Insulation nut

[@NetZeroTech]

Thank you so much, Ronnie! 🙏 I am glad you like it. I hope it has enough new info for insulation nuts. 😀

[@dianewallace6064]

We are insulation nuts also. My husband is an HVAC contractor so yeah.

[@NetZeroTech]

I didn't go into hemp, because it's less common. Would love to do a video on hemp and maybe straw. Dennis uses hemp at his new build. Would be curious what your thoughts are on hemp insulation as insulation nuts 😂, Ronnie and Diane. kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqWvkqOmjsmImdk

[@ronniemanuel6287]

@NetZeroTech I do not know very much about hemp insulation, except that it is expensive ! It sounds very promising Being that it's renewable and requires a lot less energy to produce

[@BlueToZero]

I recently met a lady, who has written books about it. Maybe I should look into it. But first some more about heat pumps. 🙂

[@dianewallace6064]

Great Video. We are currently using almost all these insulation types except cellulose. Good to know. Insulation makes a huge savings on cooling and heating a home.

[@NetZeroTech]

Great work! Do you know your r-values? I want to do a blower door test and do some improvements. 😀

[@alberthartl8885]

In certain areas of the US, older homes (built before 1930) may still have knob and tube wiring. These wires need to be in free air to keep from overheating and causing a fire. Before blowing insulation into walls or attics the old wires need to be upgraded. Contractors wanting a simple way to demonstrate inadequate insulation to customers can purchase a modest priced attachment for a smartphone. (Less than $200) It will turn your camera into an infrared imaging device. (Made by Fluke) Areas of poor insulation will be readily visible on the screen of the phone.

[@alberthartl8885]

Correction, 'FLIR'

[@NetZeroTech]

Interesting! Thank you very much for sharing! 🙏 Yes, the attachment is a great one. Renting an infra red camera at a home improvement store should be even less expensive, if you don't need it that often. Hope things are well with you! 😀Katha

[@TedTedness-wu4vb]

My daughter just bought a 1884 non-insulating house in St Paul Mn. I am a maintenance guy at a medium sized manufacture, so I am somewhat skilled at doing these jobs. I redid the pressure side of plumbing and am in the middle of pulling the lath/plaster and rockwooling the bathroom. I will be using Intelo Plus for my advance vapor barrier. The ONLY way to go in these old old houses if you insulate them. I THEN found out the house was still using 75% of the second level on knob and tube (SURPRISE) and 30% on the main level. I followed a run of wires to the second level ceiling run and there was the main run of knob and tube, ALL live with my wire tone tool. The basement was conduit-ed and 60's breaker box "showed" it was rewired. It fooled me and everyone else. I was going to add 4 to 5 20 amp runs for my daughter's 3D printing business, but NOW I will be rewiring the whole house. I did see some signs when changing a bedroom light as it had 16 gauge wiring and not even 14 gauge. I thought it was just cheap 2 wire that was in my own 1949 house , but all my 2 wire was 12-14 gauge. Turns out knob and tube can and uses in most cases 16 to 14 gauge wire even for outlets. So we are at 10 amp draw MAX use of outlets, till I rewire. I can't trust the 1940's install of two outlets with "Greenfield/BX" style wire that it doesn't go back to a 16 gauge knob and tube wire.

[@NetZeroTech]

Wow, sound like a solid retrofit. Let me know if you'd like to hop on the show sometime to explain it. Thank you for doing all this work! I installed wall-mounted resistance heaters and we should upgrade the main breaker panel some time as we added two EVs over the years and would like to add a heat pump for hot water.

[@kennethhusted4850]

I'm a fan of the channel. Interested in changing from natural gas forced air heat/portable air conditioner(Hisense) to electrical heat pump system. So far it's cost prohibitive. Also want to be able to survive off-grid with solar panels/storage batteries because we live in western Washington state where we are due to have a 9-point-on the Richter Scale earthquake. BTW, the audio in all your videos has a problem reproducing S's. Everytime you say a word with an S in it, it breaks up. Are you recording your audio at 44.1 khz or 48 khz? If you are, consider getting a De-esser plugin (or hardware De-esser) for audio recording or post-processing. Don't get the cheapest one, you get what you pay for. It is difficult to reproduce S's cleanly. Especially female vocal. Perhaps a better quality microphone would help? Don't mean to criticize, just trying to be helpful. I've fought the S's problem for years recording vocalists/bands.

[@NetZeroTech]

Hi Kenneth, Thank you very much! Sorry for the late reply. I was busy interviewing and connecting with heat pump experts at the heat pump summit in Denver :-) Interesting project you are looking into. I also help people to choose an installer. Let me know if there is anything I can help with. [e-mail] Thank you very much for the feedback on the audio! Very helpful. I thought I had fixed it and then it came back. It looks like I have to buy a new microphone. Thank you!

[@NetZeroTech]

One of those videos that won't "work" on KZbin, but that I want out there. It's called selfish content.... Hahahaha! 🤣

[@NikeMikey101]

Screw spray foam. It's a pain in the butt if you have to work around it (electrical, plumbing, etc) Everyone cuts it and never replaces it. If you have a leak in your roof how the heck will you know when spray foam is so sealed the water runs down and drips somewhere else

[@NetZeroTech]

Thank you so much for sharing! 🙏 Very interesting. I also have heard things like that before. What do you recommend instead? Cheers, Katha 😀

[@bombadil776]

Yeah, building codes in North America don't seem to be pointed towards efficiency or innovation :(

[@NetZeroTech]

While, building standards could be higher all over North America to serve owners and tennants, most Canadian houses at least seem to be a bit better insulated. Regarding code, for instance, Canada has higher r-value requirements for wood. Thanks for sharing! 🙏 Katha 😀