ARLINGTON, Mass., Dec. 5, 2008 – Alex Cheimets and Cyndi Page, using vinyl clapboard in an extreme make-over of their two-family condo, are receiving state support and utility funding to test the effectiveness of various innovative materials in saving energy.

After incurring water damage on the ceilings of his kitchen and living room, Cheimets considered replacing the wood shingles on his outside wall with rigid foam board insulation under news siding, and wrote to the state Department of Energy Resources to ask whether the improvements would trap water inside the walls.

The Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, glad to find someone interested in making energy-conscious upgrades to his home, wanted to test how effective various products and services are on an old house. Cheimets's house renovation is now known as the Massachusetts Super Insulation Project.

The state worked with the utility to pay for some of the improvements, and Cheimets obtained product donations from corporate sponsors for insulation, windows, siding and other products. 
NuCedar Mills, of Chicopee, Mass., provided vinyl clapboard siding that replicates the look of finished cedar, and is made of 20 percent pre-consumer recycled vinyl that is 100 percent recyclable, finished with a solar reflective coating to reduce energy costs. The use of NuCedar qualifies for two LEED points.

Synergy Construction started the project by super-insulating Cheimets's roof, with six inches of rigid foam under a new set of shingles. The next step is installing the windows, and then adding four inches of foam to the outside wall, then covering the wall with the clapboard vinyl.

Cheimets recommends insulating the home outside the frame, which allows more space for insulation, and keeps heat in the house that would normally escape through beams and studs. The dark lines that appear on the roofs of other houses, where heat has escaped and melted the snow or frost, will not appear on Cheimets's house.

Cheimets plans to install heat-recovery ventilators, which will bring in fresh air and allow the moisture to escape without losing heat. 

The oil boiler in his stone-walled basement now has a sensor on it, so the oil company can tell how much oil is left in the tank, and Cheimets can track insulation performance of the project. Cheimets was using about 1,150 gallons of heating oil every year, and anticipates significant savings in oil and heating costs when the renovation is complete.

The project also includes plans for an instant hot-water heater, and carbon monoxide sensors on every room.

Cheimets expects the project, which will cost $100,000, will be done sometime this winter, and believes the super-insulation will also keep the hot air of the summer outside and the cool air inside.  

A television crew from Planet Green has already visited the Cheimets home for a future episode on the new cable television network. Ian Bowles, the secretary of the state's Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, has also met with Cheimets at his home, and eagerly awaits the results of this energy-saving renovation project.  

When this renovation is done, Synergy Construction will move on to a similar retrofitting project in Natick, as the demand for super-insulation grows.

You can follow this project by going online to superinsulating.blogspot.com.

The Vinyl Institute represents the leading manufacturers involved in the production of PVC vinyl in the United States, and promotes the value of PVC and vinyl products to society. 

For more information, contact:
Jeffrey B. Palmer
Director of Marketing & Communications
The Vinyl Institute
(703) 741-5669
jeff_palmer@plastics.org   

Also go to:  www.vinylindesign.com, and www.vinylinfo.org.