Insulating Your Mobile or Manufactured Home: 1950 - Present

By Kevin D. Nelson

Why is my home cold? This book covers how to information on why and how to change that cold house into a warm home step-by-step. Duct systems are often separated, parted, and often destroyed by water and animals. Learn how to seal and repair damaged ducts to save on your electric bill. Air sealing—learn how and where to seal holes in the shell of the home that are constantly losing heat to outside and how to repair holes in the rodent barrier and insulate the floor with substantial amounts of insulation. There are several ways to insulate the ceiling in a manufactured home. This book covers building structure of how it was built and the different components that make up its structure from walls, windows, roofs, duct systems, and heating system, discussing how they can be improved to make your cold house into a warm home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9781662415470

Book preview

Sudden High-Bill Problems

Your utility measures electrical usage on your home in kilowatts of power used each month by reading the numbers on the meter outside your home and subtracting it from the previous month’s reading to come up with the current month’s usage.

The utility usually keeps your consumption history on file or computer for four to six years and will give you a copy of your kilowatt consumption history upon request.

By obtaining a copy of your kilowatt history for three to five years, it will be easy to note any sudden changes or where problems first started to occur.

Looking over your kilowatt-per-hour usage over a five- or six-year period in each month will first tell you if you are using close to your normal usage for that month or if there was a drastic change, which will note either a current problem or a change in lifestyles.

Mobile homes tend to show an overall increase in kilowatt hours of power used over the years. These readings help to indicate the overall conservation condition of your mobile home.

Kilowatt hours of power usage on a mobile home will vary with the size and number of people living in the home and their chosen lifestyle.

Question: What kind of kilowatt-hour usage can you expect to use in your mobile?

Answer: Single wide mobiles up to 14×66 feet with four people in the home generally will use from 1500 to 2000 kWh of power per month, whereas a mobile 24×60 might use and average of 1800 to 2500 kWh in a month. This is not an unusual amount.

The time to start being alarmed is when the kWh usage reaches or surpasses 3000 for a period of two months straight.

Question: What makes the kilowatt-hours of power usage to gradually climb over the years?

Answer: Mobile homes tend to shake loose from vibrations over the years, causing areas such as ducts to loosen and part at the seams and sleeves as well as the crossover duct to deteriorate and come apart, often causing your bill to rise in amounts as high as $100 to $200 a month. Animals having access to your crossover duct can tear away or make holes in it as well. The normal life expectancy of a flex-type crossover duct system is between twelve to fifteen years. If yours is this old, it may need to be replaced.

Question: What will cause the kilowatt-hour usage to jump suddenly to high usage?

Answer: Your forced air-electric furnace usually will have three elements. If one element should go out the other, two will work harder to provide the same heat to the home. The difference can cost you upward of an additional $100 a month. When your water heater had an element quit working, you may again see an increase of $100 to $200 in a month. To avoid these problems, it pays to have your furnace and water heater checked by an electrician at least once a year before the winter-heating season begins.

An improper reading by your utility-meter reader can also cause a high reading. Human error is a possibility. If you suspect your meter has been misread, ask the utility company to reread it.

One of the biggest causes of sudden high bills, especially during the winter-heating season, is when the crossover duct separates from the sleeve holding it to the plenum or an animal has made a hole in it. Check the condition of your crossover duct before the onset of the winter-heating season.

Tidbits

Over 60 percent of the mobile homes now in use were built before 1976 and were not required to meet any of the energy codes.

Most pre-1976 mobile homes have ventilated walls, higher relative humidity, and greater heat loss due to less insulation and neglect of regular maintenance over the years. Air sealing and adding insulation will greatly reduce heat loss and save massive amounts of energy use.

A heating or cooling system that is not working properly can cause excessively high bills. In fact, when one element is out, your electric bill can average from $75 to $100 a month more than normal.

An automatic setback thermostat can yield an energy savings of 5 to 15 percent on the average.

A dirty furnace filter can reduce hot air delivery by 40 percent or more.

Mobile homes were first constructed for affordability and transportability and not for energy efficiency.

Energy costs per square foot in a mobile home are generally 50 percent higher than site-built homes of the same age.

The long, narrow shape of a mobile home creates about 12 to 14 percent more surface area than a stick-built home with the same floor space.

Older household appliances use more energy to operate.

In the later 60s and early 70s, many mobiles were built with aluminum wiring. Gaskets should not be used on outlets and switch plates as they may increase the heat buildup within the walls and cause a fire, especially if the wire is loose due to the mobile being relocated or to corrosion over the years.

In mobile homes with aluminum wiring, these homes should not be insulated in the walls or the ceiling without consulting an electrician or having them rewired first.

The furnace thermostat in most pre-1976 mobile homes are improperly located near heat registers, doorways, and on outside walls and are often subject to false readings.

Thermostats properly placed will be in the main living area away from a heat register and on an inside wall about five feet up from the floor.

Deterioration of the rodent barrier is commonly found in older mobile homes due to high humidity, undervented crawl spaces, high ground water, leaking pipes, and dryer vents that exhaust under the mobile.

The particle board that was used in most mobiles tends to deteriorate by absorbing moisture. Consequently, it crumbles and falls apart in a short period. Fix any water leaks immediately.

Insulating the wall cavity to full capacity will significantly reduce air movement in the walls and greatly reduce your heat loss.

Mobile homes of the 60s and early 70s usually contained no more than one to one and a half inches of insulation in the wall cavities.

Rim joists of the floor of most mobile homes usually do not contain any insulation.

Before there were any Labor and Industries standards on mobile homes (1976), there were over eight hundred manufacturers in operation. In 1986, the number was nearer to four hundred.

It is important to remember that when you have insulated one area, you greatly reduce any heat loss through that section, and in turn, you will lose more in other areas, as heat under a pressurized furnace system will migrate to the coolest areas. By decreasing one heat loss area, you will increase another. Do not let this discourage you; you will always gain greatly by doing a measure. The extra you lose in another area is always a fraction of what you will have gained.

Changes, improvements, and repairs to mobile homes fall under Labor and Industries. Before work is done on a mobile home, you must contact them for information and a permit, if required.

Buying a Mobile Home

When buying a used mobile home, you should ask yourself a few important questions. Knowing what to look for to fill your expectations and receive the best deal is not difficult if you first make a list of your objectives and answer them honestly.

Only you are aware of your capabilities and if you will be able to perform the necessary work and repairs on a used mobile or if you should purchase one that will require little or no work. Either way, you will be in a better position if you are aware of what you are buying and how it was constructed.

Mobile homes often begin as a first home that is intended to be temporary but ends up serving as a permanent home. You should keep this in mind.

A mobile home can be drafty, uncomfortable, and expensive to heat. The roofs tend to leak if they haven’t been properly taken care of, and the floors deteriorate quickly when water or moisture is present.

On the brighter side, with proper roof care and basic precautions, the same mobile can become a warm, comfortable, draft-free, efficient home for the next forty years. Like any other home, it will require upgrading and yearly maintenance to keep it in good shape.

The following section contains many questions you should ask yourself before buying a mobile home. Once you have answered these questions honestly, you will be ready to look for your new home with confidence.

Question: Is the mobile home going to serve as a permanent or temporary home?

Answer: A permanent home should have enough room to suit all your current and future needs without requiring expensive additions other than what you decide on at the time of purchase.

If you are buying a mobile to be used as a temporary living area, less than five years, because you are building a home or using it as a stepping stone to fix and resell to buy a larger one, the mobile needs to be large enough to suit your current needs and be in good enough condition that you won’t be spending large amounts of money on repairs while saving for your next home.

Do also keep in mind that many mobiles purchased as a temporary home end up becoming permanent homes.

Question: What size mobile do you need?

Answer: Plan on a home large enough for the growth of your family and business needs. Many families currently run an office or business from their homes, or you may decide to have another child. It is better to have an extra room already in existence than to add one.

Question: What year or age mobile are you looking for?

Answer: Any year or age mobile can be made to serve as a cozy, warm, efficient home. Older models usually take more work to make them energy efficient and tend to have less space and smaller rooms, whereas mobiles in the later 70s and 80s have more space and take less work to retrofit. Also, the older mobiles cannot be retrofitted with the greater amounts of insulation, which can be added to those of the late 70s or newer.

Question: Do you know what county and Labor and Industries codes will apply to your mobile?

Answer: Mobile homes are built to Labor and Industries standards, and they may require additional work to be done on them before you can inhabit it. Each county also has their own set of standards your mobile must meet. Before purchasing a mobile, check with the county and Labor and Industries for permits you might need and other requirements they may expect.

Question: What should you expect to pay for your mobile home?

Answer: Prices vary greatly on mobiles not only due to the condition of the home but also where you buy it. You may buy a home from a private owner in better condition than one of comparable size and value simply because the homeowner has built a new home and wants the mobile out of his way, or you may find one in excellent shape at a bargain price because someone is moving to another area and is in need of a quick sale and fast closing. Mobile home lots tend to average higher prices but also offer advantages such as financing, hauling, and setup and can often be bargained with to a price you can find acceptable.

Keep in mind that the price of a mobile home will not go down in the future, and in fact, the price of mobiles, like everything else, is on the rise. This is partially due to the fact that mobiles are no longer being built, and their decreasing numbers help keep the price up. They are still the most cost-effective home on the market.

Question: Does the mobile have aluminum wiring?

Answer: In the late 60s and early 70s, aluminum wiring was installed in many mobile homes. When buying a mobile, make certain it does not have this type of wiring. If it does, either plan on changing it to copper, choose another mobile, or learn to live with the problems that seem to arise from the use of this type of wiring.

Question: Does the mobile have wall or floor rot?

Answer: