Insulate Your Attic, Walls, and Floor

The outer shell of your home acts as a barrier preventing the interior and exterior temperatures from equalizing. When you have good home insulation in your walls, floors, and roof you’ll lose less energy and your HVAC system won’t need to work as hard to heat and cool your home. This is especially important when it comes to your roof because that’s where most of the air from inside your home escapes from.

Seal off all air Leaks

Even if your home’s walls are full of the best home insulation your money can buy, they’ll still let a lot of warm or cool air escape through their cracks and gaps, especially around your home’s windows and doors. If your home has a lot of drafts running through it, you’ll need to spend more money heating and cooling your home. The best way to save energy here is to buy some weather-stripping and caulking to seal off any air leaks you find throughout your home. If you’re living in an older home, it’s almost impossible to seal it off so that it’s tight enough that no air escapes. Due to the construction methods that were used in building these homes you’ll still have enough fresh air for maintaining good ventilation after you seal off any large leaks.

Insulate Your Ductwork

When you have central heating and air conditioning ducts running throughout your home so that the forced air can circulate, you need to watch out for any leaks that may spring up around these ducts. When you find such leaks, you’ll know that your HVAC system is working about 20% less efficiently than it should be. To correct this issue, you’ll need to seal off and insulate all the leaks in the ducts that are located throughout your home. This will ensure that the air is getting to where it’s meant to go in as efficient of a manner as possible. You’ll find that having good home insulation is even more important when your ducts are traveling through unfinished areas of your home, such as your attic. It’s also important to seal off any areas around your home’s registers so that air doesn’t leak behind the wall or under your roof.

Use Reflective Home Insulation

Although most of the different types of insulation that are available for use today will reduce heat transfer by physically blocking it from occurring, reflective insulation works even better. It is installed in your attic floor whereby it’s able to reflect the heat that’s radiated into your attic. This is why it’s sometimes referred to as reflective insulation. The benefit of using this insulation is that it reflects the heat so it doesn’t enter your home so you’ll save energy. Living in Florida, you’ll find this insulation particularly useful.

When you’re ready to take any of these steps to save energy and money, make sure you reach out to Done Rite Insulaiton immediately. They’re the area’s premier professionals when it comes to home insulation so you’ll want to make sure you put their expertise to work for you today.

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Wind Power

You don’t need huge wind turbines since wind energy on a smaller scale can easily power your home. There are great benefits to this including the fact that it’s renewable, clean, and cost-effective (ROI in about 6 – 30 years). Grid-connected wind systems are an ideal way to lower your electric bill because they’re smaller and less expensive to connect. With this system you’ll receive energy from the grid when you need too much electricity at any given time. However, if you consistently generate excess electricity your electric company may pay you for it.

Hybrid Power

When you want to be completely off the grid, your house renewable energy should come from a combination of wind and solar energy. Here you’ll use both wind turbines and solar panels to generate the electricity you need. This will create a consistent, reliable system since wind and sun are available at different times.

Geothermal Power

This type of energy comes from the heat that lies directly beneath the Earth’s surface. It’ll supply your home with renewable energy 24/7. While doing so it’ll emit few, if any, greenhouse gases. The benefit is that you’ll use 25% – 50% less electricity than you would with a traditional HVAC system without making many changes or utilizing much space in your home.

Microhydropower Power

When you have flowing water (even a small stream) on your home’s property, it only makes sense to use a microhydro generator. With this you can generate consistent, clean, renewable energy that costs less than solar or wind power. All you need is a waterwheel, turbine, or pump that receives water, causing it to rotate and power an alternator or generate whose job it is to create electricity.

Solar Shingles

In the past we could always tell which homes were using solar energy because they’d have huge, cumbersome solar panels located nearby. This is no longer the case though thanks to photovoltaic roof tiles (a.k.a. solar shingles). Today this is a great option not only because it’s aesthetically pleasing, but it’ll also help you lower the cost of your electric bill.

You’ll find that these shingles are a lot easier to install than traditional solar panels. Once installed you can barely tell they’re there because the blend almost seamlessly with your traditional shingles and work along side them to protect your roof from the elements of nature. Nevertheless, they’re three times stronger than traditional shingles and come with a lifetime guarantee. As such, you’ll receive a lot of great benefits from them with only a slight increase in price over the cost of solar panels.

Conclusion

Adding some insulation alongside of your house renewable energy is also important. For this you can trust Done Rite Insulation to do the job for you. So, when you’re ready to get started on these projects, make sure you give them a call.

Picture Credit: Vivint Solar

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How They Work

Attic fans work by pushing out the hot air that stores up inside your attic and bringing in cool, outdoor air. This will prevent hot air from entering your home where it’ll increase the temperature and the load on your air conditioner.

Most homes already have some venting and roof insulation built into them. This is in the form of soffit vents that are built into the eaves where they can bring cool air into your home. There are also roof gables that allow for the exit of the hot air that’s inside your home. When the air leaves your home, it creates negative pressure that sucks in the cool air. This creates a self-repeating ventilation system.

Unfortunately, this system isn’t enough. You need attic ventilation fans. Fortunately, they’re very energy-efficient since you can set them to only operate within a specific temperature range. Today, many of them are also solar powered so they won’t need any electricity. Make sure that you choose ones that can move at least 700cfm per 1,000 sq. ft. of attic space you have in your home. You should also have 336 square inches of open soffit ventilation so you receive 700cfm.

Their Downside

Although these fans will help keep your home cool, there’s still some controversy surrounding them. The main point of contention is that when you have good roof insulation your attic fans will be less effective. In reality, if your home is well insulated you won’t see a significant reduction in its cool load if you add fans.

Some of their other downsides include:

• They may increase the loss of conditioned air.
• Their suction may cause your home to lose some of the conditioned air if there isn’t enough soffit vent space available.
• They can also cause a dangerous backdraft that may lead to combustion problems with your air conditioner.

Determining Your Home’s Need

It may sound like these fans aren’t worth the hassle or that they’ll cause more problems than they’ll solve. However, there are some circumstances in which attic fans are useful. These include:

• When your roof insulation is less than R-19
• You have a thoroughly air sealed attic floor
• There’s lots of eave soffit ventilation space
• Your attic has HVAC equipment that’s well-insulated and sealed

When you’re ready to discuss things like your home’s roof insulation and whether attic fans will benefit it, you should consult with the professionals as Done Rite Insulation. They have many years of experience on their side that they look forward to putting to work for you so call them today.

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Why Your Home Needs Attic Insulation

The U.S. Department of Energy says that most American homes are under-insulated. This is why about 50 – 70% of the energy used within the average American home is for heating and cooling. You don’t have to be stuck with outrageous energy bills though. When you have the right attic insulation installed your roof can perform at its best, saving you about 20% on your utilities.

What Insulation Does

The reason why heat tries escaping through a home’s roof during the wintertime is that heat’s tendency is to move toward the cold. Of course, this is also why heat tries to enter a home in the summertime. Typically, this air exchange will happen in your attic, basement, and garage. When these areas have the proper insulation though, because it’ll trap the air in its tiny pockets, thus resisting the heat transfer.

Knowing how Much Insulation You Really Need

A few things factor into how much roof insulation is necessary for a home including the climate you live in, how old your home is, and how much insulation is already present there. With this in mind, you must also understand how insulation’s thermal resistance is rated – what its “R value” is. The higher this value is, the better insulated your home will be. According to the U.S. Department of Energy and the International Energy Conservation Code homeowners in Florida should use 12 inches of R30 – R60 insulation.

Understanding the Different Types of Roof Insulation

There are a few types of attic insulation you should consider:

• Blow-in or Loose-fill fiberglass or cellulose insulation: This starts as large blocks that a machine chews up into small pieces that are sprayed into your home’s attic. It’s beneficial because it can reach hard to reach places there.
• Roll or batt fiberglass or rockwool insulation: This is laid out in huge sheets. Although it has a higher R value than loose-fill insulation, it might not fill in all the gaps in your attic. Additionally, this type of attic insulation isn’t ideal for an attic that doesn’t have standard joist space or one with lots of obstructions to work around.

Why You Should Install Insulation When Re-Roofing Your Home

When you install roof insulation when you re-roof your home you avoid disrupting your life further. You also ensure that your roof can perform at its best. There won’t be any leaks that cause mold or mildew to grow there either.

For more information about roof insulation contact Done Rite Insulation today. Over the years they’ve quickly and easily installed insulation in attics throughout the area. Make sure they’re the name you turn to when you’re ready to improve your own home’s insulation.

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Settling and Compacting

Although most insulation materials have been designed to maintain their shape for decades, it’s still possible for them to settle and start to press down upon themselves over time. This causes them to become thinner and less strong than they originally were. Fortunately, you won’t need to fully replace your roof insulation here, but you will need to add another layer to it.

Water Leaks Causing Mold and Mildew

Mold and mildew pose a serious health risk to everyone who’s living in your home. This is why it’s so important to replace any portions of insulation when you discover that it’s harboring mold spores. Even if you notice that the material has dried out, you need to understand that mold spores can still become airborne. Once this happens, they’ll travel to other areas of your home that are wet. By catching this before it happens, you may only need to replace a small part of your roof insulation which will save you money. This is why you should check your insulation any time you’ve had a plumbing or roof leak. Sometimes sanitizing the area can prevent mold and mildew from growing.

Thin Material

Sometimes you may need to add more insulation because your home doesn’t have enough of it. This is especially true if you have an older home that was insulated before the government set standards for it. Any new homes that are built today are required by the U.S. Dept. of Energy to have a specific level of insulation based upon where in the country the home is located. For those living in Florida, it’s important to have 10 – 15 inches of roof insulation. This will prevent your home from heating up too fast then you know you need more insulation. If you’re uncertain, you can have a technician come to your home and measure the amount of insulation your home already has.

Outdated Insulating Becomes Decayed

When you’re living in an older home, it’s also possible for the insulating material to have been made from fibers that are able to decay. This is because older insulation was sometimes made of wool and cotton – materials that don’t have as long of a lifespan as the fiberglass that’s used today. When the materials are no longer working, your home may be too hot or cold so you must replace the insulation.

Conclusion

For many years now Done Rite Insulation has been offering insulation services to the communities of Tampa, Clearwater, Tarpon Springs, Holiday, Palm Harbor, and Oldsmar. If you’ve noticed any of these issues with your roof insulation, you should give us a call to get your free quote. Once you do, you’ll see why we’re the preferred providers for homeowners in your area.

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Have an Evacuation Plan Ahead of Time

Homeowners in coastal communities aren’t the only ones who may have to evacuate ahead of a storm. Anyone who lives in a mobile home will also need to do so. Although the local government will give you instructions about how to evacuate, you should still create an evacuation plan ahead of time. Doing so will help you locate the closest shelter, safeguard your pets, and make sure you have everything important ready to go with you.

Stock up on Non-Perishable Supplies

Once there’s been a hurricane warning issued everyone will be heading to the store. You don’t want to be part of that crowd so stock up on the following items ahead of time:

• Batteries
• Flashlight
• Candles and matches
• Prescription medication
• Three days of bottled water for your entire family, including your pets
• Non-perishable food that doesn’t need to be cooked
• A first aid kid
• Basic tools like a wrench and hammer
• A portable NOAA weather radio

When you evacuate make sure you take these things with you. Throughout the rest of the year, make sure you watch for any expiration dates so you can replace these items.

Inventory Your Personal Property

Take an inventory of all the items in your home so you’re certain you have enough insurance to replace these items if necessary. This will make the claims process go faster and smoother for you too. Additionally, you’ll need this information if you need to apply for disaster aid after hurricane season. Of course, this is also why you should make sure you have this list when you do evacuate.

Review Your Insurance Policies

You’ll want to check your insurance policies. Doing so will help ensure that you have enough money to repair or rebuild your home and replace your belongings after hurricane season. Make sure you have a good understanding of these policies and the repairs that are covered. Most will also pay for additional living expenses (ALE) as long as they’re reasonable and you’ve been forced to relocate. However, they won’t cover flood or wind damage so you should consider getting insurance policies for these too.

Take Preventive Measures to Safeguard Your Home

During hurricane force winds landscaping materials are transformed into missiles that damage property. Sometimes even your roof will get damaged. This is why it’s worth the expense of retrofitting your home to protect against these things. Things you’ll want to do here include:

• Use shredded bark instead of gravel or rock
• Make sure your garage door can withstand wind pressure or you could have your roof blown off
• Cut down weak branches and trim shrubbery
• Install storm shutters or have plywood panels ready to use
• Make sure your exterior doors are built to withstand hurricane season having three or more hinges and at least a one inch long dead bolt
• Make sure your sliding glass doors are made of tempered glass
• Seal any vents, outlets, garden hose bibs, or locations where cables and pipes enter your home with urethane-based caulking

You shouldn’t overlook the importance of having a good, solid roof over your home before hurricane season arrives this year. Leave this to the professionals at Done Rite Insulation. This is something they’ve helped many homeowners with over the years and you should be next.

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Understanding Different Types of House Insulation

There are different types of insulation used in homes today. Knowing a little about each of them is important. These include:

• Attic insulation: The two most popular choices here today are batt and loose-fill. Of these two popular choices, your best option is loose-fill if you’re able to find someone who can install it for you. This is because it isn’t only inexpensive, but it also is a great solution for keeping the hot summer sun out of your home since it will cover a wider area in your attic. Even if you do end up having batt insulation installed here, it’s important that you have something done so you can seal out any air leaks.
• Duct insulation: Your home’s ducts are located in unconditioned areas which is why it’s so important for you to seal them up with some good house insulation. If you’re building a new home, make sure you put your ducts in conditioned spaces to cut down on energy loss.
• Ceiling insulation: Properly insulating this area of your home will maintain consistent temperatures throughout your home. When building a new home, you may be advised to use cathedral ceilings for this very reason.
• Exterior wall insulation: Many experts will advise you to use blow-in insulation here as well. This is because the insulation is able to truly deliver when it comes to sealing air out of your home and thus keeping Florida’s heat out as well. Additionally, blow-in insulation is something that you can effortlessly add to your home’s existing exterior walls. Doing so won’t even compromise your home’s aesthetics or functionality one bit. When you’re building a new home or remodeling the one you already own, your walls will be open offering you the prime time and opportunity to use either spray foam or cellulose insulation – both of which are also great options.
• Foundation insulation: Your home’s foundation will increase the amount of moisture that’s trapped inside your home while reducing your ability to control your home’s insulation. This is why it’s so important to have the proper house insulation in place here. For this you will need to hire an insulation professional to help you get the job done correctly.

Conclusion

Knowing everything there is to know about house insulation is impossible for the average homeowner. This is why you should contact Done Rite Insulation and have them help you keep your Florida home cool throughout the year. They truly understand that you want what’s best for both your home and your lifestyle so make sure you contact them today.

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The Importance of Roof Ventilation

Simply put, air in your attic doesn’t have anywhere to go if your attic isn’t properly ventilated. This means the air will grow stagnant and hot. When your attic is full of hot air, the insulation and ductwork that’s responsible for carrying cool air throughout your home also grows hot. On the other hand, if you have the proper roof ventilation in your home, the air will stay cooler and it’ll take less energy and effort to keep your home cool.

The easiest way to think of your roof ventilation system is like a chimney, which works simply because it has a hole at the bottom and another one at the top. You want your attic to also have a hole at the bottom and another one at the top. This is important because once air comes in, it requires somewhere to exit from. If you keep this in mind, you’ll have a better understanding of your attic’s ventilation system.

Ensuring Proper Attic Ventilation

When you’re concerned about making sure you have the proper ventilation in your attic, make sure you keep things simple. Start by thinking of your attic as a chimney. Air will enter it from the bottom through a series of soffit vents (a vent that’s been installed in the underside of your home’s eaves) from there it needs a place to exit, which it does so through your home’s exhaust vents.

Make sure you’re only using one type of an exhaust vent. All your exhaust vents should be installed within just a few feet of one another in the top part of your attic. This enables the air to flow freely throughout your attic instead of simply flowing around the top of it.

This proper ventilation also requires a radiant barrier be installed. This is important because your radiant barrier’s job is to drop your attic insulation’s surface temperature. By doing so you’ll have an attic that’s not only cooler throughout the hot summer months but also drier throughout the damp winter months.

Now that you have a better understanding of roof ventilation and its importance, isn’t it time you make sure your roof has everything it needs so it can take great care of you and your home? At Done Rite Insulation we believe it is. Over the years many of our customers have been highly satisfied with the work we’ve done for them, which is also why we believe you should get in touch with us and let us help you with your roof today.

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Insulating Your Walls, Floors, and Attics

Your home’s outer shell acts as a barrier, stopping the temperature inside and outside of your home from equalizing. When your walls, roof, and floor are really well insulated you won’t need to run your heating and cooling systems nearly as much as you would if this weren’t true. Considering that heat rises, you’ll especially want to pay attention to the amount of insulation you have in your roof. This will help hold the air that you have inside of your home where you want it to stay – inside of your home.

Sealing off air Leaks

Even when your walls are well insulated, it’s still possible for the air that’s inside your home to escape if you have any cracks or gaps located around your home’s windows or doors. If your home is particularly drafty, you’ll need more power for heating and cooling than if your home was tight. If you really want to save money, you’ll spend a bit of time and money to caulk in some places and add weather-stripping in others. However, if you have an old home, you should be forewarned that it’s nearly impossible to seal your house up tight enough because of the construction methods that were used back then. This means that after you’ve sealed off the biggest leaks in your home you’ll find that there’s still enough ventilation from fresh air coming into your home.

Insulating Your Ducts

When you own a home with central heating and air-conditioning that forces air through ductwork, you’ll want to watch out for leaks here because any of these can lower your home’s efficiency by as much as 20%. This is why it’s so important to make sure all your ducts are sealed and insulated so air gets to the places it needs to be as efficiently as possible. Having good insulation is really important when your ducts travel to unfinished areas of your home (e.g. attic, basement). It’s also important to seal off the areas around your registers so air doesn’t leak behind walls or under floors.

Adding Reflective Insulation

Although most insulation will physically block heat transfer, hence reducing it, with the reflective type (a.k.a. radiant barrier) installed on your attic’s floor it’ll reflect any heat that’s radiated into your attic from a hot roof. From there this air is prevented from entering into the living space that’s below it. This is somewhat valuable when it comes to lowering your heating and cooling bill, but that’s not it’s main purpose. It’s main purpose is keeping your home cool, which is great if you live in a hot climate like Florida.

Whether you have additional questions or need some insulation installed in your home, there is one company whom you can trust to turn to: Done Rite Insulation has been helping many customers over the years. These are people who have been highly satisfied with the results they’ve achieved by working with them. There’s no reason why you won’t be as satisfied as they were so there’s no reason you shouldn’t contact them today.

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Valuable Home Energy Saving Improvements

Some of the improvements you’ll want to consider making include:
• Adding more attic insulation is an important first step. According to the U.S. Department of Energy homes that are over a few decades old really need to have some additional roof insulation installed. When you remember that hot air rises, you’ll understand why your attic is one of your biggest culprits for your home’s heat loss issues. Unfortunately, you may even be shocked to discover that your newly constructed home is suffering from this same problem. Regardless of the age of your home and why it’s under-insulated, adding an additional layer of insulation is money well spent. With the amount of money you can save, you should be able to recoup what you spent in just 4 – 5 years.
• Replace your appliances with ones that are more energy efficient, especially if they’re at least 15-years-old. Things like old air conditioners, furnaces, and boilers aren’t as efficient as even the most inexpensive models that are available today.
• Install a thermostat that you can program so you can set your climate control so you have the best temperature without spending a lot of money. These thermostats make it easy for the temperature to be turned down when nobody is home – no manual adjustments are even required to make this happen.
• Install new windows and doors or at the very minimum, seal around the ones you already have with some caulking or weather stripping. This will help eliminate any drafts throughout your home so you don’t have to spend as much money heating and cooling it. Unfortunately, if you only have single panes you probably will need to replace them. Once you do you’ll realize the inside temperature of your home is better regulated, especially if you opt for models whose frames are made out of wood– something that costs a bit more than aluminum though.
• Add ceiling fans to give your AC a boost.
• Improve your water heater’s efficiency. The breeze they offer will circulate air throughout your home. They’re also less expensive than running your air conditioner all the time.
• Improve your water system’s efficiency by installing low-flow plumbing fixtures (e.g. showerheads, faucets, toilets). These use only a small amount of water to complete their task. The money that they can save you will pay for their costs in only a few short months.
• Improve your lighting and save by changing your lightbulbs to LED or CFL. This is important because lighting your home accounts for a large portion of your electric bill monthly. You may also want to consider adding skylights or bigger windows so you get more natural light, especially if you live in a cooler climate where doing so will allow you to have more natural warmth throughout the winter.
• Replace your refrigerator and oven. They use a lot of energy so you’ll want to make sure you have the most energy efficient models available.

Deciding Where to Start

Clearly, there’s a lot you’ll want to do with your home. Done Rite Insulation has helped many homeowners over the years successfully make their property more energy efficient. They can help you too if you get in touch with them today.

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