My home office IS now comfortable!

Yesterday when the outdoor temp was between -5 and -10 for most of the day, I was able to work at home in my office in just a t-shirt. No toque, no blanket and not even a sweater! And in case you are wondering, we keep our home at a comfortable 19 degrees.

What did we do? You may recall the blog post of a few months ago where I outlined the things I had planned.

I’ve done two of the three things and am so satisfied with the results.

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Duct sealing

The ducts were leaking (inser percentage) meaning not much of that warm air was making up to the spot that’s furthest from the furnace (my home office).

Cost - $1,600

Benefits - immediate gratification. Toque and blanket shedding levels!

Implications - for about 3 hours we had two people working in our house so it was best if we vacated. Once they left, it was as if they weren’t there (except that now warm air was gushing from the vents!). Trish wrote a great blog post detailing how duct sealing works.

Attic insulation

We didn’t know what was in our attic (as we didn’t have any access). So to start, I had a handyperson cut a hatch into our attic (cost $500). Only the first 16’ of our roof is an attic, the remaining 23’ is a flat roof (we’ll deal with the flat roof later).

We then had a contractor come and blow in insulation called cellulose (cellulose is amazing at insulating in attics and it’s made from recycled newsprint!).

Cost: $800 (we’ll recoup a few hundred dollars from Enbridge’s Home Energy Rebate Program)

Benefits: immense satisfaction. Sweater shedding levels!

Implications - we had the contractors here for about 3 hours. They parked their truck in our shared drive (which we needed to make sure they had access to) and ran a large tube through the second floor windor and into the attic. They evenly distributed the cellulose up to 20” which is just over the level required to qualify for the Enbridge rebate (and the level that as an energy advisor I recommend attics to be insulated to!).

I can’t believe we didn’t do these things sooner. As an aside, I also didn’t realize how much my feelings about certain rooms in my home were based on comfort. My love of my bedroom/home office has gone up immensely now that it’s not shudderingly cold.

Productivity is at an all time high in this comfortable office!