Additional Attic Insulation Can Lower Your Energy Costs. Adding Attic Insulation can reduce your heating and cooling costs by many dollars each year. Most people don’t realize the tremendous impact insulation has on a home’s energy efficiency. Attic insulation is just like delicious chocolate chip cookies – you’ll always need more! However, if you’re looking for ways to cut your air conditioning bills, you’ve probably considered more attic insulation at one point or another. You might have even gone so far as to hire someone to install it for you. Now that we are in the middle of winter, many homeowners are turning away from this traditional way to keep their homes warm and cozy and into the newest – and one of the least expensive – way to stay warm: Attic Insulation.
Attic insulation isn’t difficult to add, it’s just a matter of knowing what steps to take.
Attics are full of moisture, which means that the air in them can get quite warm. In fact, most attic insulation is actually comprised of vapor barriers, which act as a vapor barrier to help trap heat, which then rises to the surface. That rise in temperature makes the walls of the home warmer and cozier, which mean more comfortable living conditions. But, because of the way that it traps heat, even though the walls feel warmer, the space beneath them is still usually cold.
Attic insulation must be done properly in order to give your home a complete seal, which prevents air movement, which means that your heating and cooling expenses will decrease. For instance, it’s not unusual for Attic Rugs to have tiny holes or crack around them. The tiny holes allow cold air in during the day and cool air to come in at night, which cuts down on both your AC usage and your heating bill. If the holes or cracks are larger, however, your air conditioning bill is likely to increase since you will now use more power to run your air conditioning. However, the extra money that you spend on adding Attic Insulation during this time is much less than the money you would pay over the course of several years with an uninsulated attic.
The higher r-value you put into your attic insulation, the warmer your home will be.
The higher r-value you add, the cooler your house will be. Attic R-values range according to the construction materials used to build the home. While cedar wood attics have a relatively high r-value, fiberglass attics have a much lower r-value. Other materials that are used for building attics, such as stone, metal and other forms of concrete help keep the warm air inside and the cool air outside, therefore helping keep the inside of your home cooler.
Bypasses are a great way to improve the overall quality of your home’s heating and cooling system. In fact, one of the main reasons why Attic Insulation was invented was to help people who have problems with their homes that have such things as high humidity, high water content, and other moisture issues. Bypasses are also helpful in other ways, too. Bypasses help improve the flow rate of air throughout the home so that by creating space between two rooms, you can create a larger space in which to work.
Another thing that you should pay attention to when it comes to adding insulation to your attic is what’s known as the ventilation zone.
You should mark the perimeter of the space where you’d like some additional ventilation so that you know exactly where to cut some slack. For instance, if there is no direct sunlight coming through the windows in your attic insulation zone four, then you might consider putting in some PVC pipe that would serve as a window exhaust fan. By cutting back on the amount of air that is flowing through your spaces, you’ll help keep your HVAC equipment much cooler. Cutting down on the airflow will also help keep your heating and cooling costs down.
The biggest problem with attic insulation isn’t actually finding the places to put it, though.
The biggest problem is to find the right combination of materials to match your needs. You’ll need to make sure that you buy materials that are specifically for your climate, both in terms of the frequency of use and the amount of moisture issues that you typically experience in your home.
Attic floor framing is also an important step when it comes to adding attic insulation to your home. Because it is a cold place, the typical wood framing will not work well, at least not for your HVAC equipment. That means that you’ll have to look into other options for framing your home’s attic floor. Whether you’re using plastic, metal, or another material, it’s important that you purchase framing materials that can seal out moisture and prevent the growth of mold and mildew.
