The value of home insulation is usually mentioned in the context of keeping a home warm in the winter, but insulation provides just as valuable a service in the summer. Its ability to resist heat movement works in any situation where the temperature inside is significantly different from the temperature outside, whether winter or summer.
A well-insulated home, combined with a tightly sealed exterior envelope, will keep the interior spaces cooler longer in the summer and warmer longer in the winter. This provides direct benefits in home comfort, energy savings and lower stress on HVAC equipment. When they're used less, A/Cs, furnaces, and heat pumps last longer without needed repairs.
In the summer, with the sun shining on your home's roof all day, the attic can get mighty hot unless there's insulation to slow heat gain between the roof and the attic interior, and between the attic floor and the living spaces below. Proper ventilation works hand-in-hand with the right insulating materials to keep the attic from becoming an oven that heats up the entire house.
In addition to insulating the attic for energy efficiency in both cooling and heating seasons, it's important to have adequate protection in the walls — in most homes they provide the most surface area where heat loss or gain can occur. Your basement or crawl space also should be insulated, along with the area between the basement and the first level. Ductwork, especially running through unconditioned areas, should be insulated, too.
Don't make the mistake, however, of thinking that insulation alone will solve all of your comfort and energy-efficiency issues. It necessarily works in tandem with effective air sealing and ventilation to create a properly weatherized home. Once you know where air is leaking (either from your own visual inspection or an energy audit/assessment), you can seal leaks yourself with caulk, weatherstripping or spray foam, depending on the type and size of leak.
For advice on the right type and amount of insulation for your home, please contact us at Valley Heating, Cooling, Electrical, providing quality services in the South Bay Peninsula and Santa Cruz.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in the South Bay Peninsula and Santa Cruz areas of California about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). Credit/Copyright Attribution: “AKuptsova/pixabayandrdquo;