What took me so long?

Because I work in the renewable energy industry, and we live in eco-conscious San Francisco, you'd think that I'd have an appreciation for things like basic home energy efficiency. I guess I have done a teeny bit: We have already
- replaced horrid old aluminum-framed single-paned windows with high-efficiency double-paned ones,
- caulked and weather-stripped around leaky doors and other windows.

But about a month ago, after living in this home for 4 years (and knowing that it's cold and drafty and not very energy-efficienty the entire time, and Daadi's complained since day 1 about it, saying the heat just rises away), we paid for a proper Energy Audit by the energy audit firm Recurve.

They were great - spent a few hours crawling around our home, checking things out - and the results were surprising. Fully 45% of the heat in our home & 57% of the cooling (we don't have A/C, but we still pay ~$200/month for electricity) is lost, straight through the roof.

Basically, insulation should cover ~ 12" thick above the top floor (which our unit is in our building); and ours covers 0 - 3", for a R-Value of ~ 3.

Just sealing some holes into the attic, checking some old wiring, and adding insulation up there should take us from the R-Value of 3, to 38.
There are also more-expensive things we could do - but not that expensive; such as upgrading our baseboard-heater units, and replacing our boiler (but those won't be as impactful, so we'll likely forego those upgrades). So even a minimal amount of spending now for a bit o' caulking and insulation - while it won't be free, assuming we decide to stay in this home, it will pay for itself quickly. Wow!