Big, fluffy, pink insulation usually doesn’t spring to mind when you think of summer. But in many parts of the country insulation – no matter what type it is – is just as important in August as it is in December.
In the summertime, you pay to cool the air inside your home. Insulation is the force that keeps that cooled air inside your home, instead of letting it leak through the walls and out of your home. Having the right amount of insulation in your home not only keeps the house feeling cool, but it can reduce your cooling costs up to 30 percent, according to the nonprofit Alliance to Save Energy.
Deciding how much insulation your home really needs can be tricky. That’s because the amount of insulation you need varies by the location of your home - homes in harsher climates need more insulation than those in moderate climates - and by the part of your home you want to insulate.
The insulating value of insulation is expressed in an R-value, which is a measurement of the material’s ability to resist the flow of heat. The higher the R-value, the better the insulating power. Each part of your home, like your walls, attic, basement and crawlspace, needs a different R-value. To find the recommendations for homes in your area, check out this informational chart from Energy Star.
Most homeowners can make a big impact by ensuring they have the proper amount of insulation in their attic, which can often reach temperatures well above 100 degrees in the summertime. It’s also easier to add insulation to an unheated attic than to add it to the existing walls in your home.
If your attic doesn’t have a floor, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy recommends simply adding more insulation between the ceiling beams, using either loose fill insulation or unfaced fiberglass batts. In most parts of the country, the Council recommends about one foot of fiberglass or cellulose insulation on the attic floor.
Not only will proper insulation make your home cooler in the summer, it will also help it stay warm in winter by keeping the air inside your home where it belongs – inside your home.
Source: BecauseAction.com
