Improving Home Insulation Means Better Comfort, Indoor Air Quality
You might be surprised to learn that no matter how efficient your furnace or HVAC is, if you have poor insulation, you’re throwing money out the window. Not only that, but a drafty house also creates indoor air quality issues that can irritate allergy and asthma symptoms. Get a free indoor air quality analysis to spot problems early. Find out how improving home insulation, can affect your health and comfort, as well as provide lasting energy savings year-round.
Types of Insulation That Help and How to Install Them
Most of the heat loss happens in your home through your roof. However, poorly insulated walls can contribute to heat loss as well. Drafty windows may need weathering and can be relatively inexpensive to weatherproof. Here are a few types of insulation that can help you control leaks in the home:
Blown-In Insulation – This can be made of paper fiber or fiberglass. It needs to be installed by an expert with special pneumatic equipment. It can be ideal for improving home insulation in attics that are otherwise inaccessible.
Spray Foam – This type of insulation gets blown into walls and crevices where it might be hard to put down batting. It is made of several chemicals that, when combined, create a foam that solidifies after it cures.
Batting or Blanket Insulation – This is the pink stuff you see laid down in larger attics or crawl spaces under floor joists. It’s usually made from fiberglass. Laid along walls and on floors loosely or wrapped around a water heater, it is another way of improving home insulation.
Weatherstripping – Add this felt-like barrier around the edges of drafty windows or doors.
How Much Insulation is Enough?
It depends on where you live and how drafty your house is, but you can aim somewhere between an R-value of R30 and R60.
To learn more on how to get the most from your heating and air conditioning systems, you will also need to maintain the systems efficiently. Contact us for more information on how to keep your home cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Wichita, Kansas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about home insulation and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.