Illumination

Last winter was the first year in our little aparment. It seemed that it wasn't very energy efficient we were always having to call for more propane. This winter we will have a larger propane tank so hopefully the monthly top offs will be enough. We have filled in lots of little holes where air was coming in or escaping. We have added weatherstripping around doors. We hadn't noticed the attic though. Lots of insulation up there. We knew the can lights didn't have insulation around them bescause of the type of can they are.Hadn't thought past that.

When we took down the metal skin to put it up on the exterior of the garage look what we saw one night. There are no lights turned on in the attic. That is all the light escaping into the attic from the can lights. That means there is that much of our warm furnace air escaping up during cold weather. This summer isn't an issue since hot air rises, winter is a different thing.

 So, onto the internet to find a solution. We can't put insulation around these cans and we didn't know what to do. How we figured things out before the world wide web I don't know. Come to find out this is a common problem and there is an easy but time consuming fix. If it was for just a few lights it wouldn't take that much time but we have 28 we need to fix.

First step is to buy sheets of rigid insulation foam board.

 Then cut them into strips and ultimately into 12 inch squares. We started out on our knees with a straight edge and tape measure. Bill quickly figured out that the table saw could do a quicker and easier job of this.Always find the best tool for the job.

 Once the squares were cut it was time to assemble our boxes. You can see our bird from Zimbabwe and a painting that our exchange son, Marcio,  brought us for Christmas one year. It is of a church that we saw when visiting him in Rio.

 All of these squares need to be made into boxes. These boxes will then be put over each of the can lights to stop air drafts. They need to be big enough for air to still circulate around and they cannot be totally air tight.

Hm-m-m what is wrong with this picture? I am assembling the boxes while listening to television; the movie must have been interesting. I constructed 3 boxes inside out. I have to take these guys apart and rebuild them. Actually after cutting the sides open I was able to flip them over and just had to retape 4 corners instead of 8 corners. They aren't as pretty as the others but will work just fine.