Home Efficiency & Comfort of Your Home – Home Insulation
The ultimate goal of Attic Health is to help homeowners to restore their home to an optimum position after getting our Attic Home Insulation or crawl space services. When we mention home efficiency, we mean of course that your home is running at the best possible performance.
We make sure all things are considered, including the current HVAC system is working efficiently, insulation is properly installed to preserve comfort created by the HVAC system; and that unwanted pests, odors, mold intrusions, or water leaks are kept out!
How important is Attic Home Insulation?
When you are home, you want to let the world around you to be shielded out after you shut your front door. Most seek this type of comfort from their homes, but in a home that has not been insulated, the outside temperature is similar to the inside.
Often if an attic has not been insulated properly, it will have condensation forming regularly as the days fluctuation in temperature has lots of viability. This moisture will lead to poor odors to develop and often times mold.
In short, an attic without insulation is not helping the home efficiency. In fact, the attic may work against your comfort! For example, a home without insulation will heat up and keep a pocket of hot air in the attic. So, even when the outside air has cooled, the attic and the home can still be hot!
This means you need to cool the attic before you can even cool your home down to relax after a hot summer day. The same can go for a cold day, where the cold can creep in and stay. Even when the heat is turned on, the heat escapes rapidly because the insulation does not protect it from escaping through any air leaks.
How Attic Home Insulation Works
Attic Home Insulation works to maintain consistent comfortable temperatures for the home by helping the attic serve its purpose. In hot external conditions, the attic is meant to work as an extra pocket to keep the heat away from the inside of the home. In colder temperatures, attic home insulation works to keep the warmth inside, shielding the internal walls from the outside cold.
Home Insulation can work effectively if properly installed with air sealing in mind. If the insulation is installed, but the air from outside still gets in, you may need to consult a professional.
An air leak is a sign that whomever installed the insulation did not properly seal all leaks in the attic or crawl space. Without proper air sealing, your insulation is not positively impacting your home efficiency.
How much Difference does Attic Home Insulation make?
Attic home insulation should be installed to ensure optimal thermal resistance and prevent the transfer of heat into the living space. Home efficiency in mind, the EPA makes it clear that the savings should come from properly insulating your home.
“Considering how high energy bills are these days, it is a great time to improve your home with a cost-effective project like air sealing and insulating your attic. EPA estimates that homeowners can save an average of 15% on heating and cooling costs (or an average of 11% on total energy costs) by air sealing their homes and adding insulation in attics, floors over crawl spaces and basements.” –EPA
Importance of Air Sealing
While EPA and our team highly recommend insulation, we believe that insulation should only be installed by professionals. As the EPA clearly stated, air sealing is part of the insulation’s effectiveness. So if not properly sealed, your home’s insulation is wasted on home efficiency.
What parts of the attic should be insulated?
The attic is formed by the roof’s truss which has many different beam components. Often homeowners will refer to all beams in the attic as “rafters”, and this is not the case.
The base of the attic has tie beams that run along the floor of the attic, these hold up the ceiling internal wall of the home. The rafters of the attic are the beams running parallel to each other, working to hold the roof up, connecting the top main ridge board in the center of the ceiling of the attic, with the wall plate and the tie beams.
The insulation materials should be installed between all rafters along the ceiling of the attic, and also between tie beams or ceiling joist beams at the base of the attic floor.
While air sealing should be done prior to the Home Insulation installation, it is important to look for any additional air leaks when installing the insulation as an air leak can negatively impact home efficiency.
Attic Health Wrap-Up
Prioritizing home efficiency through proper attic insulation and air sealing is crucial for creating a comfortable and energy-efficient living environment. Attic Health aims to optimize homes by ensuring that attics and crawl spaces are well-insulated and free from issues such as pests, odors, mold, and water leaks.
A well-insulated attic serves as a barrier against extreme temperatures, preventing heat from infiltrating in summer and retaining warmth during colder months.
The Attic Home Insulation, coupled with effective air sealing, maintains consistent temperatures within your home, reducing the strain on HVAC systems and leading to significant energy savings. By addressing insulation gaps and air leaks, you safeguard your home’s efficiency, enhancing your overall comfort and quality of living.
In essence, Attic Health’s commitment to home efficiency provides homeowners with the peace of mind that comes from knowing their living spaces are optimized for comfort and savings.
