Heat exchange through surfaces (e.g. walls, attics, ducts, roofs) is reduced when you insulate them. This is why less warm air escapes through well-insulated homes during the winter months. This is also true for the amount of cool air that escapes from these homes throughout the summer months. All this is great news for you as a homeowner because it means that your energy bills will be lower since you’ll need less energy for heating and cooling your home – by as much as 20%. This is also why people who own older buildings want to work on better insulating them too.
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.
