Historic Savings: Insulating an Old House for Energy-Efficiency

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Adrienne Bashista’s historic 1915 farmhouse needed many energy-efficiency upgrades to make it through the cold North Carolina winter. To make the home more efficient, Bashista and her husband got a home energy audit, added insulation to the attic and under the floor, and caulked all cracks they could find in their old farmhouse. Photo By Michael Shopenn

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In the early 2000s, my husband and I started a business renovating historic properties in central North Carolina. These homes were beautiful, fascinating, full of history—and filled with leaks. They weren’t built to be heated and cooled with central heat and air-conditioning. We dedicated ourselves to finding ways to remain true to these houses’ beautiful historical nature while also providing modern conveniences. Today, our company focuses on renovating historic homes by making them more livable and energy-efficient. By insulating an old house, we preserve its beauty and historical significance as well as its energy costs.

The evolution of our family business from historic property renovators to residential energy-efficiency experts began with our home, a 1915 farmhouse in the heart of central North Carolina. The day we saw this sweet, rustic fixer-upper, we knew we would buy it. The seller knew it was a sure thing when she saw my husband zip up his coveralls to crawl under the house, then climb a ladder to inspect the original metal shingles—water-tight as the day they were installed. We knew quality and charm when we saw it. After all, this was what we did for a living! But, as we soon discovered, thoughtfully renovating an old home to maintain its historic charm was quite different from actually living comfortably in it, especially when it came to heating and cooling.

We thought our house’s interior needed only basic cosmetic work: The original beadboard walls and ceilings begged for a simpler touch than the decorative paint the previous owner had used. The floors needed refinishing, the bathrooms updating. Structurally, the house was sound. The only big improvement needed was to install central heat and air. We were puzzled by the lack of air-conditioning in a climate that regularly sees weeks of 95-degree days, and we thought the individual propane heaters in each room were too complicated and took up too much space. Central heat and air was a no-brainer—until fall turned to winter and we discovered the economics of pumping hot air into a space originally intended to be heated by fireplaces and cooled only by the shade from a deep porch and the blessing of a mid-day breeze.

The first winter we owned our 2,300-square-foot farmhouse, we spent more than $4,000 on heating, and our family wasn’t even living there. The thermostat was set to 55—just warm enough so my husband and his subcontractors could work on the house. The reality of the appealing beadboard walls hit home: Where each individual board touched was a place air could leak out and in, and leaking air meant leaking energy, which translated into lots of money floating out the walls. We must have heated the western half of our small town that winter! Something had to change. So instead of new kitchen cabinets, we switched gears and spent our remaining money and time making our home more energy-efficient. Although our specific house is an extreme case, the lessons we learned about insulating an old house can be applied to all homes, historic or not. Here’s what we did: