Can't be true!

BigPig knows more about it than the expert that insulated my house, and the HVAC company with 100 years of combined experience, doing it every day. He's been selling used houses for 5 minutes, pay more attention to him.

How much water you collected in the cisterns so far?

They were full, 45 days after installing them a year ago. 17,000 gallons

Well blow me down.......when do you start the pool

How long does the water stay fresh in the cystern?

They can't get sunlight or insects in them. The company I bought them from didn't tell me to worry about it. The pump only pulls from one tank. The water gets extremely filtered after the pump. 10 micron, 5 micron, carbon, then UV light. Tastes great, too!

I’ve been storing five gallon bottles of water in a rack in the dark pantry for 20+ years. The water does not go bad under those circumstances.

All I’m saying is that while the foam is great and better than fiberglass, it’s not the end all be all of insulation. Our propane usage runs about 32 gallons a month or $85, running the water heater and furnace. It’s much easier to keep our house cool during the summer than warm in the winter. We maintain about 70 degrees year around. If we could get the $1.50 propane everybody talks about then our bill would be far cheaper, but I haven’t found a service that will bring me 200 gallons at the price, instead it’s $2.65.

Oh, and I’m only talking from 3 years of living in the house vs your 3 weeks

I did an inch of closed cell, followed by 2 1/2" of open cell in the walls. 7" of open cell on the roof. If there is a better way to insulate it, I never saw it. And I'm not going to lose any sleep justifying what I built to you.

BP, just stop. My blondie the builder says he did it right and she builds High performance houses. I can let you debate her but he did this right for what it is and it will work. Stop being a dick...

Blondie will win and I just want front row seats when this goes down if you want to call this.

That is what I thought....

That's what the builder recommended for our new office. Great for temp and rain sound proofing

What’s the difference between open cell and closed cell? Does either one make it hard to locate a water leak?

Closed cell is very water proof. It also adds structural stability to the wall, giving it a higher wind load rating. But, the R-value is lower than open cell, thus the reason for adding the open cell behind the closed cell. On the water leak, my bet is they are both going to make it difficult to locate the leak, causing water to travel somewhere other than the leak location. But open cell being more proud, I would think the water is more likely to give the gravity and go toward the floor.

No new pics?

Open cell will hold and retain water, therefore a membrane is required in some climates. Closed cell has a higher R value per inch than open cell. Closed cell is a good bit more expensive than open cell.

Here is a good read on foam insulation
https://tigerfoam.com/sprayfoaminsulation/inch-by-inch-an-in-depth-look-at-r-values/?keyword_session_id=vt~adwords%7Ckt~%7Cmt~b%7Cta~395852885404&_vsrefdom=wordstream&gclid=Cj0KCQiAh4j-BRCsARIsAGeV12Bmz1lCuXWY44c2-X8-LCwGzxB42mJaLWYkn_Izy0APLDAoNdOpkOcaAqh5EALw_wcB

Phone was crapping out. I got a new one today. I'll get some pics soon.

I may have missed this with all the foam/ac talk.

Did you consider a wood burning or pellet stove for heat source? Since it don’t get all that cold here.

I also have a wood burning fire place. Outside air supply and a blower fan. We would probably have to turn the heat off, and open a window to use it though.

Jason, your fireplace guy may have told you, but you will need to open a door or window near the fireplace to get the draft going up. Foam houses are so tight they tend to suck the smoke back into the house until a substantial flow out the chimney is created. The outside fresh air is only enough for combustion.

On that note, I’m curious how a foam house burns, if any different than a batt insulated house.

I was curious about my shop since I weld and cut near the walls so I tested a piece of foam with the cutting torch. You can char it and sort of melt it but it does not burn (ignite).

Great PSA.

My foam installer told me it would not ignite, and would not contribute to the fire.

On my side of things, I look at it as a positive in controlling a structure fire. As tight as these houses are, say a room and contents fire, it probably won't make it beyond the origin room, if the door is shut. Fire must have fuel, oxygen, heat, chemical chain reaction to live. The fire is likely to use up all of the oxygen, and decay quickly. The FD can make this work in their favor or screw it up. Cool and ventilate and it will be a win. Give it a gulp of fresh air, fail to cool, and things can go south. Backdraft is when you introduce new oxygen to a smoldering fire. It had everything it needed to burn, except oxygen, and oxygen was given back to it, and failure to cool and ventilate happened.

I knew the foam wouldn’t burn, which is why it’s such a good choice for open shop walls. Just didn’t know how it affected structure fires being so air tight.