Archive for the ‘Foil insulation’ Category
Are you considering ways to reduce your heating bills and wonder if garage insulation is for you? This article can tell you more.
There are lots of commonly known ways to help combat home heating costs. One is caulking windows and doors to block incoming air drafts. Sometimes, total window replacement is necessary in order to get a good fit and a tight seal. Another tactic to try is using foam insulation to fill cracks and spaces behind electrical outlets and wall switches. Remember, little things add up!
If you’re heard of radiant barrier, then you know it’s a great product that can be used in conjunction with existing traditional insulation
in your attic. The radiant barrier blocks the flow of radiant heat generated by your furnace to create a cozy environment in your living spaces. Once that heat begins to rise, it meets the radiant barrier in your attic and is deflected down to the living space. You’ll be able to set the temperature lower and remain as comfortable as before.
The same type of technology works perfectly in your garage. Garage insulation is used on garage doors and the surrounding joints to block the flow of warmer air, effectively keeping it inside where you want it.
Garage insulation also has some side benefits of greater privacy, and possibly even some noise abatement (perfect if you have a “garage band” family member). For households where the garage is insulated, this product is especially important as it helps ease the burden on your HVAC system. On cold mornings, especially, you can reduce the risk of your vehicle not starting due to low temps because the garage insulation will have maintained a consistent temperature overnight, despite drops outside.
Today I have the distinct pleasure of enjoying a day that’s minus 18 degrees. “Enjoy” might not be the best word, on second thought. Or maybe I do mean it, but in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way.
The Midwest is known for our corn and our pork. We’re known for good public school systems and for those bridges in that Madison County movie. But we’re also known to have some pretty darn cold winters. And that’s a fact.
As a native of Florida, I detest the cold weather. Over a decade of living in Iowa hasn’t thickened my blood or made me less susceptible to being discomfited by the frigid temperatures and biting wind. I stay indoors as much as possible and avoid stepping outside, even into our garage, as much as possible. That can make for a long five months of a season, for sure.
One thing that’s made Old Man Winter more tolerable has been the insulation project we finished late last summer. Tired of astronomical cooling bills, we scheduled a home energy audit with our utility company. He told us that all those faint drafts and cool rooms added up to some significant air transfer, and that’s not a good thing.
He determined we had some decent basic insulation in our attic, but that we certainly had room to add more. He also suggested we look into a relatively new product (but evidently one that’s getting a lot of press) called reflective insulation. The product looks a lot like tin foil, the stuff you might use in the kitchen. But the foil insulation effectively stops heated air from moving into spaces where there’s colder air. That was a perfect solution for our house, where the warm air we were paying for seemed to keep rising into the attic and out into the atmosphere.