How to power this APPLIANCE - do you know how ?

[Michael Luton]

Thanks for trying Aaron. My problem is my house is a 1915 cement block house with a super hard concrete stucco that is almost impossible to penetrate even with a masonry drill bit or I could add external insulation. Internally there are 3/4 inch thick nailers nailed into the mortar joints and then covered with plaster and lath. Basically it would turn out to be so expensive to insulated that I would be looking at a 40 year payback and in my area would not add to the resale value of the house as I'm already topped out for my part of town.

I have an idea that I'm considering that I will not repeat here as while I am comfortable with it, it will not pass any building codes and I have to figure how to do it without getting caught by the city inspector.

[Aaron Murakami]

Thanks for trying Aaron. My problem is my house is a 1915 cement block house with a super hard concrete stucco that is almost impossible to penetrate even with a masonry drill bit or I could add external insulation. Internally there are 3/4 inch thick nailers nailed into the mortar joints and then covered with plaster and lath. Basically it would turn out to be so expensive to insulated that I would be looking at a 40 year payback and in my area would not add to the resale value of the house as I'm already topped out for my part of town.

I have an idea that I'm considering that I will not repeat here as while I am comfortable with it, it will not pass any building codes and I have to figure how to do it without getting caught by the city inspector.

Check out NANSULATE coatings. It's both radiant reflective but also has insulation value.

I've used nanosphere ceramic coatings before, they're only radiant reflective since heat doesn't go through a vacuum in the nanospheres.

The Nansulate is a good product and they have applications for inside walls, outside walls, roofs, boiler pipes, etc. you name it.

It's paint on so can be added to anything. You'd have to do the numbers to see if it is worth it to you.

For me, the retrofoam was a bit spendy, we only pay about 8 cents per kw/h here so payback is a long time. It won't have as much r value as the foam, etc. but is worth looking into. For me, I'm more interested in freedom than roi, which I think should not always the primary objective - just how I see it.

[Michael Luton]

I'll check out the nansolate. Over the cement block a reflective coating might actually be more meaningful than insulation. Here at 15 cents a kw/h I have a little more incentive than you electrically, but I do heat with natural gas for economic reasons. Understand the freedom thing, however unfortunately in my income bracket lower cost does equate to a freedom factor.