Hughes County, SD Insulation Payback
Hughes County attic insulation, by the numbers
Hughes County, South Dakota is zone 6 under DOE's climate map (Cold), which means winters that dominate the energy bill, with cooling a minor factor. An uninsulated attic there should be built up to R-60. Going from R-2 to the recommended R-60 costs roughly $3,480 installed for a typical attic (about 1,000 sq ft), and pays for itself in about 1.5 years at an estimated $2,288/year saved. Topping up the attic pays for itself fast here.
Heating vs. cooling in Hughes County
Split it out and it's roughly $2,182 a year on the heating side, $106 on cooling. By estimated insulation savings, Hughes County lands in the 93th percentile nationally. Zone 6 alone covers 459 counties in this dataset, and Hughes County comes in 106th by savings. South Dakota averages $2,162/year across the counties tracked here; Hughes County comes in 6% higher.
Where these numbers come from
Hughes County's climate figures — 8,161 heating and 657 cooling degree days a year — are read from HARROLD 12 SSW, SD US, 8.6 miles away, NOAA's nearest 1991-2020 normals station. That combined heating-and-cooling load ranks Hughes County 205th nationally by total degree days — the 94th percentile. One local detail the R-value alone won't tell you: Hughes 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 $334/year saved (~6.8-year payback). Worth doing on the numbers alone.
Quotes and materials for this job
Get more than one quote before committing. Attic access and any needed air sealing move the price around, and most contractors won't take a job below roughly $600 regardless of size - worth asking upfront given Hughes County's estimated $2,288/year on the line.
Where these figures come from
Hughes 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.