Edmunds County, SD Insulation Payback
Edmunds County attic insulation, by the numbers
Edmunds County, South Dakota is zone 6 under DOE's climate map (Cold), which means a real winter that drives most of the annual energy bill here. An uninsulated attic there should be built 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 $2,387 a year — payback in roughly 1.5 years. Topping up the attic pays for itself fast here.
Where the savings come from
Split it out and it's roughly $2,306 a year on the heating side, $81 on cooling. By estimated insulation savings, Edmunds County lands in the 95th percentile nationally. Zone 6 alone covers 459 counties in this dataset, and Edmunds County comes in 36th by savings. South Dakota averages $2,162/year across the counties tracked here; Edmunds County comes in 10% higher.
Edmunds County's actual weather, not a national average
The heating and cooling degree days behind this estimate — 8,624 HDD and 503 CDD (base 65°F, 1991-2020 normals) — come from ROSCOE, SD US, the nearest NOAA station with published normals, 6.9 miles from Edmunds County's center. By total degree days, Edmunds County sits at the 96th percentile nationally. One local detail the R-value alone won't tell you: Edmunds County sits in moisture regime A (humid), which can affect the vapor-barrier choice.
The smaller top-up scenario
A shallower starting point changes the math: with R-11 already down, only the gap to R-49 needs filling, at roughly $2,280 for an estimated $348/year saved (~6.5-year payback). Worth doing on the numbers alone.
Quotes and materials for this job
Actual quotes will vary by attic access, existing debris, and whether the job needs air sealing first. Treat the $3,480 figure above as a planning number for Edmunds County, not a bid - contractors typically charge a $600 minimum regardless of job size.
Where these figures come from
Edmunds 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.