A long cold Indiana winter can cause your heating bills to skyrocket if your home isn’t properly insulated. The heat from you home will always move to colder areas, including your garage, attic and outside the home. This puts an unnecessary workload on your furnace in the winter and your air conditioning unit in the summertime, unless your home has a proper thermal barrier.
When shopping for the best insulation for your home, the most important thing to measure is thermal resistance. This is a measurement referred to as an R-value. Insulation batts or rolls are made of fiberglass, cellulose or rock wool to insulate your home. They are sold in widths meant to fit in the standard spacing between wall studs, floor and attic joists. They can be cut to fit non-standard spacing and can be used for basements where the material will be left exposed.
Two types of foam insulation are open-celled and closed-celled, which are made of polyisocyanurate and polyurethane. Open-celled foam allows for greater movement of water vapor, but holds a smaller R-value than closed-celled foam measured for the same thickness. Reflective insulate is commonly used for roof rafters, floor joists or wall studs to provide lower levels of downward heat. A radiant barrier is a single reflective surface often used for roof sheathing. This can be installed with foil-faced wood products where the reflective surface faces down into the open space of the attic.
The first step is figuring out how much insulation you have. Existing walls are difficult to insulate, unless you are installing new siding or finishing a basement. Look at any floors that are above unheated spaces and find the R-value on the insulation label, if possible. If you can’t find an R-value, multiply the thickness of the fiberglass batt by 3.2 or multiply the thickness of the spray on foam by 5. This should give you the appropriate R-value to determine your next step.
For learn more about insulation or other HVAC related questions, please contact us at Hartman Brothers Heating & Air Conditioning. We have been serving the Fort Wayne area since 1963.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in New Haven, Indiana and surrounding Fort Wayne area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about insulation and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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