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”

The Most Important Places to Insulate in Your Home

Blown In Attic Insulation in Tulsa

Many homeowners take for granted the insulation that's hidden in the walls, floors and attic of their house, yet insulation plays a crucial role in both energy efficiency and comfort. While all houses have some level of insulation, many don't have enough, or else have it in the wrong places. Areas to insulate include the basement and attic and everywhere in between.

How Does Insulation Work?

Insulation, in whatever form, provides a barrier to slow down the movement of heat energy between the inside and outside of a building. Heat energy is always striving to move from warm to cold, which means in the summer, the outside heat is trying to infiltrate the inside of your house. During the winter, heat inside your home is seeking to escape. Insulation slows down that movement of heat energy (not the same as air movement). While insulation will stop some movement of air, a house also should be tightly sealed against air leaks. Insulation without air sealing doesn't work any better than air sealing without insulation.Without sufficient insulation, your house will suffer from heat gain in the summer and heat loss in the winter. This will force your HVAC equipment to work harder than necessary to keep the house comfortable, which means energy is being wasted, equipment is being stressed, and your comfort is compromised.

Areas to Insulate

The walls of a house form the greatest amount of square footage exposed to the outside. Consequently, it's vitally important to have adequate insulation in your home's walls. The basement or crawl space are also areas that are prone to heat loss/gain, which means they also need insulation.Your home's attic is probably the area where the greatest amount of heat movement occurs — coming in through the roof down into the living spaces in summer, and stealing heat from those living spaces in the winter.A properly weatherized home should have an energy-efficiency strategy that combines insulation and air sealing with energy-efficient HVAC equipment.For help determining what areas to insulate in your Broken Arrow area home, please contact us at Air Assurance.

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 insulation and other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273. Credit/Copyright Attribution: “io-images/Pixabay”

Tips to Save Money and Increase Energy Efficiency During Cooler Weather

Winter is coming to Broken Arrow, and that means running the furnace nearly constantly to beat the cold. It's why winter also means skyrocketing energy bills. What can you do about it? Is there a way to save money and increase energy efficiency while still maintaining your overall comfort? Here are a few tips.

• Get a programmable thermostat. Rather than having your furnace running full blast while you're not home, a programmable thermostat lets you switch between your general home comfort setting and an energy-saving setting that's a few degrees warmer. Switch to the energy-saving setting automatically during the day while you're at work and at night when you're asleep. Throw a few extra blankets on the bed to make up the difference in heat.

• Seal your ducts. Holes in your ductwork cause air (and heat) to leak out before it reaches your rooms, which requires more energy to make your home comfortable. Inspect your ductwork carefully for tears, holes, gaps and other damage that can allow air to leak out, and seal them up with metal tape or mastic sealant.

• Insulate. Even if your home has insulation, chances are it could use more. Insulation slows the flow of heat so that it stays in your home longer. Since heat rises, the best place to insulate your home is the attic. If the insulation in your attic is at or below your floor joists, then you could use more. Call an HVAC professional to help you add insulation.

• Upgrade. All the energy-efficiency advice in the world won't help if your furnace is wasting energy. That's when it's time to upgrade to one that will run more efficiently and save money. It may cost a bit, but it'll save you in the long run. Look for the blue Energy Star label, which indicates your furnace has been inspected by the federal Energy Star program and is proven to save money and energy over comparable models without sacrificing performance or features.

To learn more about improving your home's energy efficiency, contact us at Air Assurance.

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). Credit/Copyright Attribution: “twobee/Shutterstock”

Assess Your Home Insulation and Make Improvements Before Fall

Assess Your Home Insulation and Make Improvements Before Fall

When a homeowner thinks about home insulation, he or she is often concerned with its ability to keep the heat outside during the summer and, to a lesser degree, the fall. The reality, however, is that insulation is always a concern, even during the winter months when it's imperative that you keep the heat inside. Checking during the fall to make sure you have the correct amount and type of insulation in your home will work wonders on your energy usage and, in turn, your utility bills. Where to Check Your InsulationInsulation is located in various places around your home, including your basement, attic, walls, etc. Insulation can even be located in your floor. Its primary objective is to create a barrier within the walls, floor, and ceiling that keeps heat or cold from leaking inside or outside. The problem is that many homes don't use the correct kind of insulation for their needs.Evaluating Your Insulation NeedsIn order to insulate your home properly, you're going to need to evaluate each room. The first thing you need to learn is R-value. This refers to the degree of resistance against heat flow of a certain type of insulation. Knowing the recommended R-value in our area is essential if you're hoping for maximum protection against heat loss. The other part of the equation is the type of insulation involved. There are a number of different types, such as flexible rolls, foam, rigid and reflective.How can you tell which type of insulation to use and its required R-value? You can typically find information online or even by visiting your local hardware store. However, much of that may be too generalized. What you should really do is hire a professional HVAC technician who has been efficiently trained and can perform an energy evaluation to determine how to maximize the insulation's efficiency.For more expert advice on home insulation or other home comfort issues, please contact the experts at Air Assurance. We've been serving the needs of the Greater Tulsa Metropolitan area since 1985.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).  Image courtesy of Shutterstock