When To Replace The Insulation In Your Home
Knowing when to replace the insulation in your home can make an amazing difference in your heating and cooling bills. If you are paying hundreds of dollars each month just to keep your home comfortable, we can help. At Roscoe Brown Heating and Cooling, we offer a variety of solutions to your high energy bills, including recommending additional energy efficiencies to older homes.
Standards Have Changed
If your home is more than 20 years old, and you have not yet taken steps to further insulate your home, then it is probably time to replace the old fiberglass or Rockwool with more energy efficient materials. The types of materials used now are far more effective than the fiberglass batting installed years ago. Fiberglass batting, once the industry standard, is virtually obsolete because it does not produce the R-value you need. More recently built homes feature closed cell blown-in foam and radiant barrier attics. Polyurethane panels also deliver some of the highest R-values. Many older materials, like cellulose fiberglass, and Rockwool just don’t meet new building standards, plus cost a lot of extra money to heat and cool.
Why New Materials are Better
Most of the older forms of thermal barriers offer R-values between 2.2 and 3.7 per inch. The R-value of closed cell spray foam is 6, around twice the value of fiberglass, vermiculite or Rockwool. In addition, most of the older types of barriers deteriorate and settle, so that you lose a lot of thickness and effectiveness. Spray foam does not deteriorate like the older types, and fills cracks and gaps better.
Evaluating Attic Protection
The Environmental Protection Agency has determined that all attics in central Tennessee should be insulated at a rating between R-38 and R-60. To determine if your attic makes the grade, you should inspect your attic, and measure how deep the thermal barrier material is. Each inch of material is then multiplied by the R-value per inch. For example, if you have 6 inches of Fiberglass batting you would multiply 6 by the R-value which is 3.1 so your attic’s R-value is 18.6. That means you have less than half of the recommended protective barrier. Since loose, blown materials such as cellulose, vermiculite and fiberglass pellets are rarely of the same depth throughout the home. You should measure at several different spots and take an average. Also consider that batting can crush down and loose its fluffiness over time, rendering it much less effective.
Attics
Materials in the attic are simple to replace and accounts for much of the heat loss in winter. In summer, heat can build up in the attic, but a radiant barrier combats attic heat build-up and reduces attic temperatures by more than 30 degrees. The attic is one of the most important places to insulate in your home. Energy efficient walls are also important, and it is possible to have closed cell foam material blown into walls, even after they are constructed. Various thermal barriers can also be used below the floor in homes with a crawl space or basement.
Energy Efficiency Pays for Itself
Measures to save on energy increase the value of your home by up to $10,000 according to the recently proposed Sensible Accounting to Value Energy SAVE act. It is estimated that energy efficient homeowners will save about $20,000 on utilities over the course of 30 years. With rising utility costs, any reasonable means of gaining additional energy efficiency will pay for itself in overall cost savings in less than 8 years, leaving you to reap the benefits for all those years to come.
Staying Cozy
Tennessee weather can be extreme. In winter the cold weather can set in for weeks with sudden temperature drops as well. Wind can add even more challenges to heating a home. A drafty house is uncomfortable on windy days, no matter how much you turn up the heat. If you are experiencing drafts or days when the house just will not get warm enough, it is time to evaluate your home’s energy efficiency, and consider upgrading to closed cell foam.
Adding additional thermal barrier materials can make a huge difference in your heating bill and your level of comfort. Keeping your home cozy, even on cold winter nights is much easier with closed cell spray foam or even with other materials if they are applied thickly enough. Energy efficiency will save you a lot of money, but keeping your family warm on those cold winter nights is priceless.
Attic Barriers Keep A.C. From overworking
Summer air conditioning can be just as challenging, and in recent years, heat waves have impacted the lower lying areas of Tennessee during the summer months. By taking advantage of energy efficiencies, such as closed cell insulating foam in the attic, and radiant barrier attic protection, you can expect ample cost savings and stay comfy year around.
There are three ways to evaluate when to replace the insulation in your home; one is to physically check on your attic, another is to determine if your electric bills are higher than they should be, and third is to consider the comfort of your home in extreme weather. If you find that your home is lacking in any of these forms of evaluation, Roscoe Brown Heating and Cooling can assist you in evaluating your home further, to determine your insulation, heating and cooling needs.
If you would like us to evaluate your home, call Roscoe Brown at 888-MY-ROSCOE
Serving middle Tennessee since 1940.
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