Attic Insulation: Have Enough Upstairs To Keep What You Want Downstairs?

Keeping your home cool for the least possible cost is a reasonable goal of many summer home-improvement projects. As you look for ways to cut expenses and increase comfort, don’t neglect the insulation in your attic. Attic insulation directly affects conditions not only in the attic itself but in your entire home.

In the summer, as temperatures increase and sunshine beats down on your home’s roof, poorly insulated attics can get extremely hot. A hot attic becomes, in effect, a giant oven sitting on top of your living spaces. The wood and building material of your home absorbs this heat and releases it downstairs. The entire surface of your ceiling becomes warmer and radiates excess heat into your home’s interior. The temperature of rooms and areas beneath the ceiling increases. Your cooling system works harder to compensate for the additional heat, which wastes energy and money.

These problems can be prevented if your attic is sufficiently insulated. Sunshine and outdoor temperatures will be less likely to increase the heat level within the attic. A good level of insulation in the attic floor will keep heat from radiating into your home through the ceiling.

Standard fiberglass roll or blanket insulation is a good choice for use between the beams and joists in the attic roof, floor and wall. Loose-fill insulation is also an effective option. It is made of insulating pellets or fibers that can be blown into open spaces in your attic. Loose-fill insulation is particularly convenient if you need to insulate irregularly shaped spaces or areas that are hard to reach with roll insulation.

When choosing insulation, get the material with the highest R-value possible. R-value indicates how well insulation resists the flow of heat. The higher the R-value, the better the insulation will work at keeping attic heat out of your downstairs areas.

Energy 1 Heating & Air Conditioning has provided quality HVAC sales, maintenance and repair to homeowners in Lorain, Erie and Cuyahoga Counties for more than 33 years. Contact us today for more information on how attic insulation affects home comfort or to schedule a professional evaluation and installation.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about attic insulation and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Energy 1 Heating services the Lorain, OH area. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!