Does Your Home Have Enough Attic Insulation?

Attic Insulation Installation Tulsa

When it comes to improving your home's efficiency, don't forget about the attic. Experts calculate that leaks in the attic floor can drain away 30 to 50 percent of your heating or cooling.Heat rises upward and migrates through cracks into the unconditioned attic space, eventually escaping through the roof or vents. In the summer, a hot attic and uninsulated attic floor can make it more difficult for you to cool your home, as heat moves through conductivity into the living space.What's the solution? In most cases, more attic insulation will do the trick.

Adding Insulation

Start your attic sealing project by identifying the various areas where energy is being lost. Lay wooden planks across joists to walk on before you start moving around.

1. Check for gaps around fixtures, pipes, wires, ducts and anything else that enters the attic space from the living space. Roll back existing insulation batts to get at all the holes; if you have loose-fill insulation, it might be better to get a professional to locate the leaks. Fix all the smaller leaks you find with caulk. For holes up to an inch wide, use expanding urethane foam. For still larger holes, use a piece of drywall to plug it, sealing edges with foam. You can also use fiberglass insulation.

2. Seal gaps around stove flues and chimneys with a sheet metal collar and heat-resistant caulk, separating these structures from insulation.

3. Put extra insulation on top of the attic hatch door. Place weather stripping around the edges of the hatch.

4. Next, check to see if the insulation on your attic floor reaches the top of the joists. If not, add more to the top or over the joists. Make sure it is evenly distributed, and reaches the sides of the attic.

5. Insulate behind knee walls.

6. Build airtight boxes with rigid foam insulation to cover recessed lighting canisters. Get professional advice about how any insulation you are considering might overheat when used in proximity to the lighting canisters.

To learn more about attic insulation, contact Air Assurance of Broken Arrow.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about attic insulation and other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273. Credit/Copyright Attribution: “travellight/Shutterstock”

Attic Insulation Services in Tulsa, OK

Insulation services - Attic insulation services in tulsa

Solid insulation in the right places in your home is critical to maximize indoor comfort and minimize monthly cooling and heating costs. Insulation is the material that resists the movement of heat inside the house. What’s more, it works both ways: holding heat in and keeping heat out, depending on the season. Learn more about the Inflation Reduction ACT energy tax credits available for home insulation and more HERE.

Heat in Motion

It’s a fundamental fact of physics that heat always moves from a warm zone into a cooler zone. Unfortunately, it’s usually moving the wrong direction for home comfort and efficiency. In winter, heat produced by your furnace tends to radiate out of the house into colder outdoor air, increasing heating costs. In summer, conversely, outdoor heat constantly infiltrates the cooler indoors, causing your air conditioner to run extended cycles to maintain comfortable indoor temperatures.

Material Matters

Solid insulation is an all-season material that keeps summer heat outside and holds winter warmth inside. Because the cost of heating and cooling represents at least 50% of a home’s total energy expense, that’s a major benefit to your budget.

Here are some other facts about proper, solid insulation in your home:

• Solar energy radiates through the roof in summer, increasing indoor temperatures and AC usage. In winter, rising heat in rooms seeps through the ceiling, causing the furnace to run longer cycles. In most homes, ground zero for insulation in all seasons is the attic.

• Fiberglass batts are the least expensive and most common residential attic insulation. The recommended depth of rollout fiberglass batts in an attic in southern regions averages 12 inches up to 20 inches.

• Cellulose insulation is more efficient. Blown in under air pressure, it provides better heat resistance at a lesser amount, with the recommended depth starting at 8 inches and ranging up to 15 inches.

• Insulation should always be accompanied by air sealing to eliminate cracks and gaps in ceilings that allow heat loss or heat gain, depending on the season. This includes sealing air leaks around ceiling light fixtures and attic pull-down stairs.

Ask the professionals at Air Assurance for more about the benefits of solid insulation in your home.

Insulation: Do Your Numbers Add Up?

When choosing insulation for your home, you need to understand its R-value. An R-value is a measure of thermal resistance: it indicates an insulation’s capability to resist heat flow, and how well it will heat and cool your house. The higher an insulation’s rating, the more effective it is.An R-value is contingent on the type of insulation, its thickness, and its compactness. How effective your insulation's resistance to heat flow is will also depend on how and where it is installed. A wall or ceiling’s overall R-value will be slightly different from the insulation’s R-value, since some heat flows around the insulation through the studs and joists. That’s why it is important to correctly install your insulation to attain its maximum R-value.Here are some other things you should know about R-values:

• Different types of insulation vary in thickness, but those of the same R-value should insulate your home equally.

• On average, the recommended R-value for basement insulation is R-12.

• The R-value of blown-in cellulose house insulation is 3.70 per inch; the R-value of expanded polystyrene house insulation is 4.00 per inch, and fiberglass house insulation is 3.14.

• Compressed insulation does not afford its full rated R-value.

• An inch of insulation is equivalent to 30 inches of concrete.

• The average R-value for house insulation changes depending on weather and temperature.

• The R-value in house insulation is considerably lower if your home has air or moisture/water leaks.

• When determining the R-value of a multi-layered installation, you must add the values of each layer. Installing extra insulation in your home will enhance the R-value and the resistance to heat flow.

The U.S. Department of Energy can help you choose the right insulation R-values for your home. Simply select your zone, heating system and where you plan to insulate and look for the matching R-value range.Air Assurance is proud to serve the residents of Oklahoma. We are happy to answer your questions concerning insulation and provide free estimates to you if you are interested in better insulating your home. We are always ready to provide the information you need to take better control of your home comfort.Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information, click here. Air Assurance services Tulsa, Broken Arrow and the surrounding areas. To get started, check out our website or see our current promotions.