Winterizing an older home

Originally Posted by OutdoorLover

I don't think it's economical unless the house siding and windows are fairly well shot anyway, and you're doing a major remodel to fix condition issues. Then you could pull the siding, refill what's in the walls (which may have settled or degraded), and then hang 3-inches of foam or rock wool rigid board insulation on the outside to make the house nice and snug, before attaching new siding. Windows would be replaced at the same time with some decent quality double or triple pane windows. It's definitely doable and it is done, but that's a big and costly project - my first guess would be around $100K, and the end cost would depend on the home size, windows, siding and contractor used. It's far easier and I think cheaper to just buy a new house built to Energy Star (or better) standards. Search insulation retrofits or energy retrofits in Google to get some ideas.

P.S. Here's a link to guys adding 6-inches of rock wool board outside - probably more than you need, on a retrofit of a house in MA. http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/...ool-insulation

P.P.S ...and here's a link on the same site to a study on the cost of deep energy retrofits, looks like my $100K guesstimate was a good instinct. Note though that the results are going to be actually better insulation than in an average new home.
http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/...ergy-retrofits

P.P.P.S. Chinburg builders out of Newmarket build a lot of Energy Star rated houses in NH. The Energy Star standard is gradually revised upward as the years go on.