How to insulate your home?
Either in hot summer or during frosty winter days you can often hear people complaining about unfavorable weather conditions. The only place to hide is your own home, protected by proper insulation.
But even here we don’t always feel comfortable. What is more, maintaining heat requires lots of spending. So, how to tackle this problem and save the money simultaneously?
If your home is not properly insulated, forget about saving on energy bills. Don’t think insulation is too expensive. Our guide will help you to discover cheap and effective ways and give you some home insulation tips.
1. Find problem areas
The picture below indicates the main areas where home loses heat. Look, investigate your house and make conclusions. Decide how much insulation you need and what places need it the most.
To eliminate wholes that can steal your heat or cool is probably the cheapest yet one of the easiest and most effective ways to stop the leak of air. Inspect your house and determine the places that need to be insulated, – it can be roof, attic, floor, walls, windows etc.
Don’t forget about mini-draughts from cat or dog flaps or letterboxes. Then budget the insulation.
2. Start from simple things
At the very beginning, you actually don’t need any special knowledge or equipment. There are some steps you can make right now. And, simple doesn’t mean ineffective. In particular, start from the double glazing, it’s really worth investing in. Today you can find many companies offering energy-efficient windows that allow you to retain heat better, as well as get rid of city noise.
3. Choose the proper form of insulation
There are various ways of insulation which can be classified into such categories as blanket, concrete block insulation, foam boards and rigid foam insulation, loose-fill and blown-in insulation, spray foam insulation and others. If you want to do it yourself you should search for some detailed information on Hirerush.com. But you can also get some help from a certified professionals and auditors who make home energy assessment.
The type of insulation will also depend on the part of the house you are going to insulate and the geographical region your home is located in.
Besides, you should pay attention to the R-value of the material – a special indicator showing the level of resistance to heat. The Department of energy provides information about insulation’s R-values that will be suitable for the particular region and part of your home.
4. Minimize air leaking
After completing the previous tasks you can move to the next step. First, seal problem areas as, for example door gaps. You can use weather stripes.
After that, you may tint your windows that will prevent your home from direct sun radiation. At the same time while blocking vents remember about moisture problems that can occur without providing proper ventilation.
Studies show that almost half of the home’s energy is lost through walls, windows, doorways gaps. Using spray foam insulation can be the best way to solve the problem.
Spray foam is an alternative to traditional building insulators and is used not only to build temperature but also to control moisture and even reduce noise.
5. Focus on the attic
According to the principles of physics warm air tends to rise while cold air falls down. So the roof is the place through which the warm air leaks the most. Thus, insulating your attic is the most cost effective way to make your home comfortable place to live in.
Furthermore, huge amount of heat can be lost through the open fireplaces.
6. Insulate your walls
Another important part of the house which keeps its heat is walls. Most old houses have no wall insulation at all.
So it is necessary to inspect the level of wall insulation and define the type of walls – solid or cavity walls, or some sort of nonstandard wall.
7. Try to use environmentally-friendly materials
Using green materials seems to be more expensive, but in the long term perspective such products are more preferable than artificial ones. For instance, recycled products are natural that means they can serve better and do no harm to you and your family.
As you can see, proper insulation protects your home against cold in winter and excess heat in summer. But still be aware of the fact that you can’t completely eradicate heat loss.
I’m trying to better insulate my house. Thanks for the advice about starting simple with windows. Now I just need to find a company to help me get and install some double glazed windows.
I want to improve my home’s efficiency. Thanks for the advice about how you should focus on your attic since it is the most cost effective. Something else to consider is to get your insulation installed by a licensed professional.
That’s a great thing to work on! Glad you decided to start your energy efficiency journey. And yep, the best results are achieved by experienced insulation pros.
Thanks for sharing some tips for insulating your home. You make a good point about how it is important to focus on your attic and your walls. It makes sense that the roof would be the place where warm air can leak. I have noticed that it is getting drafty in my home, so I will have to see if I can hire a contractor who can help me fix the insulation.
I really like your tip about choosing the proper form of installation when it comes to your home. My husband and I have been wanting to save some money on our heating bill so we have been thinking about insulating our attic. We will have to keep these tips in mind for the installation process.
I like that you said that it is important to locate the main areas where a home loses heat. Maybe it’s easier to spray insulation into those specific walls or ceilings that are losing the most heat. I think that it is really important to find a local contractor that will do exactly what you want.
I agree that the attic is somewhere that you need to insulate. Insulating the higher areas of your home would probably be a really smart idea. My brother is insulating his home, so he’ll have to remember to focus on the attic.