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A cold house in Mt. Pleasant MI in January affects everything. Sleep quality suffers when bedrooms cannot hold heat. Mornings are miserable when the first floor is 15 degrees colder than the thermostat. Heating bills climb as the furnace runs continuously trying to compensate for heat escaping through the attic, windows, and crawl space. Most cold-home problems in Isabella County are well-understood and fixable.
If your first floor is always colder than your second floor in your Mt. Pleasant home, the crawl space is almost always the reason. An open uninsulated crawl space connects your living area directly to outdoor temperatures through the stack effect — cold air rises from below continuously through the entire Isabella County heating season. Spray foam crawl space encapsulation converts the crawl space to a sealed conditioned buffer zone. First-floor temperatures improve noticeably in the first heating season. Most Isabella County homeowners who encapsulate their crawl space call it the most effective single comfort improvement they have made.
Single-pane aluminum windows radiate cold into the room from several feet away on a January night in Mt. Pleasant — you feel it standing near a closed window. Window insulation film helps temporarily. Caulking the frame stops air infiltration at the perimeter. EP VueSeries replacement windows from Energy Plus address the cause: double or triple pane, Low-E, argon or krypton filled, insulated vinyl frames rated for Isabella County Zone 5 climate. EPA estimates 100 to 600 dollars per year in savings for Central Michigan homeowners replacing single-pane.
When the furnace runs almost continuously, the instinct is to service the furnace. Often the furnace is fine — it is fighting a building envelope allowing heat to escape faster than it can produce. Zone 5 Isabella County requires R-38 in the attic. Most pre-1990 Mt. Pleasant area homes have R-11 to R-19. Blown cellulose closes that gap in a single day. Energy Star average 15 percent reduction. Consumers Energy rebates up to 400 dollars. Federal 25C tax credit up to 1,200 dollars per year.
Energy Plus addresses all three comfort problems: crawl space encapsulation for cold floors, EP VueSeries windows for drafty rooms, and blown cellulose for high heating bills. Many Isabella County homeowners tackle all three in a single season. Call (989) 833-1000 or (989) 575-3360.
