House retrofit test seeks super-efficiency (Maine)

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=287504&ac=PHnws

FREEPORT — Maine's ambitious plan to weatherize all existing homes over the next 20 years has a big hole: With limited money, it's cost-effective only to make upgrades that will cut average energy use by 25 percent to 30 percent.

What would it take to slice consumption by half, or even three-quarters?

That's a question being asked around the country in the building science field. Researchers say 80 percent of all homes are more than 30 years old and need major energy upgrades.

Some of the answers could come from an abandoned 1875 house that stands a boot's throw from L.L. Bean. It could become Maine's first example of what contractors call a "deep energy retrofit."

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"With plans to cover the house in 4 inches of poly foam, followed by plywood, house wrap and new shingle siding. Combined with cellulose insulation in the existing walls, the technique will create an exterior wall with a very high R-value of 40. (An insulation's R-value measures its effectiveness.) A similar technique on the roof will bring the R-value to 50."

But there are more efficient ways of providing that kind of energy efficiencies. I wonder why they have not considered adding dead air space to the house. The are going to have to surround the house anyway.

more or less like what you propose here. This was around the time or right after the oil 'madeup' crises of '73. Air infiltration is where a lot of money can be saved with both air conditioning and heating.