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Insulation: Never Enough By Randy Arthur President, Arthur Air Conditioning If your attic is insulated to R-19, you probably think you’ve done a good job in adequately insulating your house. Guess again. The federal government recently increased the suggested attic R-value for our area to R-38! That’s twice as much insulation value as R-19. Heating and cooling account for 50-70% of the energy used in the average American home, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Insulation saves you money and saves national resources, and it also makes your house more comfortable by maintaining a uniform temperature everywhere. Not long ago, R-30 was considered a very good level of attic insulation, and R-19 was perfectly acceptable. (The “R” stands for “resistance to heat.” The higher the number, the more resistance the insulation provides.) Fortunately, even though electric bills are climbing, we can easily reduce electricity use by insulating to government standards. New methods of applying insulation make it fast and clean to install. You might qualify for a rebate of some of the cost of insulation if you use a contractor approved by your electric utility. Attics are not the only places that require insulation, although the federal government standards are much lower for exterior wall cavities between studs, floors over uninsulated spaces, and crawl spaces. Those are recommended to be insulated to R-13. Blown insulation can work in the wall cavity of wood framed walls as well as attics. Batts (rolls) are probably the easiest way to insulate a crawl space. Beyond the obvious, your house can leak air in lots of places. The weakest link in the insulation chain is the first place you will lose air and money. Can you see outside under your doors? Weatherstrip them. Can you feel hot air (or cold in the winter) coming in or around electrical outlets on exterior walls? Remove the switch plate and place a foam filler behind it. Is your attic access sending hot air down to you? Seal it. Do your windows leak? Start pricing replacements now. In the houses where we add insulation, we often find the homeowner with a $200 monthly electric bill starts saving at least $60 a month immediately after these improvements. Insulation and weatherstripping will pay for themselves in a year or less. Windows will take longer to pay you back – but the comfort they deliver counts, too. Give me a call at 727-535-5817 or email rarthur@arthurair.com if you’d like to discuss how your house could be wasting energy. |
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