Bourbon County, KS Insulation Payback
Bourbon County attic insulation, by the numbers
Bourbon County sits in IECC climate zone 4 (Mixed-Humid) — a genuine mix of cold winters and humid summers, with neither one dominating the bill. For a currently uninsulated attic, DOE and ENERGY STAR recommend building up to R-60. For an attic around 1,000 square feet, closing the gap from R-2 to R-60 costs around $3,480 and saves an estimated $1,468 a year — payback in roughly 2.4 years. Topping up the attic pays for itself fast here.
Where the savings come from
Split it out and it's roughly $1,207 a year on the heating side, $261 on cooling. By estimated insulation savings, Bourbon County lands in the 51th percentile nationally. Zone 4 alone covers 825 counties in this dataset, and Bourbon County comes in 237th by savings. Kansas averages $1,594/year across the counties tracked here; Bourbon County comes in 8% lower.
Bourbon County's actual weather, not a national average
The heating and cooling degree days behind this estimate — 4,513 HDD and 1,628 CDD (base 65°F, 1991-2020 normals) — come from FT SCOTT, KS US, the nearest NOAA station with published normals, 8.7 miles from Bourbon County's center. That combined heating-and-cooling load ranks Bourbon County 1432nd nationally by total degree days — the 55th percentile. One local detail the R-value alone won't tell you: Bourbon County sits in moisture regime A (humid), which can affect the vapor-barrier choice.
If the attic isn't bare
If Bourbon County's attic already has 3-4 inches of old insulation (about R-11) rather than bare joists, the recommended target drops to R-49. That smaller top-up costs around $2,280 and saves an estimated $214/year — payback about 10.6 years. Call this borderline rather than a clear win.
Quotes and materials for this job
Real bids depend on how easy the attic is to reach and whether old insulation needs removing first, so treat $3,480 as a starting estimate for a Bourbon County job, not a quote. Expect at least a $600 minimum charge from most contractors.
Where these figures come from
Bourbon County's R-60 target and its degree-day figures both come from named federal sources - see the methodology guide for exactly which ones. The guide to what R-value actually means explains why R-60 is the target here specifically.