Insulation, Radiant and Vapor Barriers - Internal Draft

Hello,
I have a 55 year old brick row home called an airlite (don't know what that means) with no insulation on either the front or back of the house. The walls have 1" by 3" furring strips right up against the brick with 1/2 inch sheetrock over it. I seem to have a problem with the front bedroom. Dispite replacing two double hung windows with "Pella's designer series triple pane glass, I still feel a draft coming from this room. I made sure all cracks around the windows and the baseboard were sealed with fiberglass. The wall outlet has a draft stopper attach to it.

Now I think the draft is being caused by the differance in temperatures of the cold wall, including the triple pane glass and less colder temperature in the room. I feel when this happens, that air currents are formed making one think that there are leaks.

So after reading some threads on using Extruded Polystrene directly on the 1 by 3 furring strips, then putting sheetrock over it, would be my best solution. Do you agree? What about a vapor barrier? I may need to build out the framing around my windows which would be no problem plus adding an extenstion plate for my electrical outlet. Any imput appreciated.

Brick is tricky, because it needs an air space behind it to prevent spalling under cold weather conditions. So before you pop XPS in there and make things really bad, let's do some intermediate work:

How did you "seal" cracks with fiberglass? Wouldn't you have to use caulk or canned foam? It may be a good time to replace that fiberglass.

Also, cold air can only be coming into the room if hot air is going out. So if you can prevent the hot air from leaving, you can keep the cold air from coming in. So get an energy auditor in to find the drafts & cracks in the ceiling (usually around internal walls), and get those sealed too. Or, your furnace system may be drawing the air in through your walls for combustion. It may be time to go to sealed combustion.

THEN, and only then, is it time to insulate the walls. It doesn't change the fact that sealing brick is tricky. You'll want to follow this procedure:
Insulating Solid Masonry Walls (http://www.buildingenvelopeforum.com/Masonrywall.htm)

Generally it involves using a very low R-Value to guarantee that enough heat reaches the brick to prevent freeze thaw, but with a complete air seal (since air leakage is the bulk of heat loss anyways). Also, especially with selaing brick, the higher the insulation permeability, the better.

Of course, if you don't live in a cold climate, you can do whatever you want ;)

Doug,
I should have said small openings instead of cracks. The second floor ceiling is not as cold as the exterior walls. Its just the bedroom thats facing northwest that has this draft that as far as I can tell is caused not by air infiltration but by warmer air making contact on the cold wall causing this air to fall to the floor and out the bedroom and down my stairwell where I feel it as I sit by my computer. I experimented with a electric heater in the bedroom and the draft does not occur when I use it. Just before I replaced the old double pane windows, I had them sealed well with plastic wrap and on cold days, I could see what I thought was a large amount of air leakage. The plastic wrap was pushed away from the window by the weight of the cold air. But when I used the heater at a temperature much higher then I normally set it, then the plastic wrap would collapse against the window. This is how I came to the conclusion that the draft is caused by the differance in internal temperatures; Wall temperature vs room temperature. I plan also to add more of that bloan in insulation above the ceiling as some areas are about 4 inch's deep while other areas are about 6 inches.

If I use that extruded polystrene, is it supposed to be installed between the furring strips or right over them? Thanks for the link; I'll check it out.