January 3, 2020
Sure, you know that there is insulation in your home. But do you know exactly where throughout your home your insulation is working to keep you comfortable, the type of home attic insulation you have, and how much you actually need to keep your indoor drafts and energy bills as low as possible?
If you are wondering how to improve the insulation of your home, you’ve come to the right place. The team here at Vermont Foam has been pairing the best insulation materials with professional installation, helping stabilize the home comfort of both new and older homes here in New England. Here’s what you should know about where to insulate your home.
“How” Insulation Works, All Year Round
Let’s begin with a basic understanding of how insulation is supposed to work. Because most Vermonters are familiar with the classic pink and fluffy stuff that is fiberglass insulation, it is easy to assume insulation is primarily for keeping heat inside your home during the winter months.
In actuality, the role of insulation is to slow the transfer of heat between your home and the outdoors. This works both ways, as insulation in the summer will also prevent the outdoor heat from infiltrating your home. The benefits of a properly insulated home include:
Fewer indoor drafts
Stable indoor temperatures (even from room to room)
Lowered risk of ice dams
Reduced heating & cooling costs
“Where” Insulation Works
So, where are the most effective home insulation areas? Here is where we spend our time, from top to bottom:
The Attic
We started at the top for a reason — the attic is one of the most important areas of your home to insulate. In the wintertime, the heat from your furnace or boiler will have a tendency to rise toward the cooler temperatures in your attic. Any holes in your recessed lighting, vents, fans, attic hatches, or lapses in your attic floor insulation will allow that heat to continue to rise into the unconditioned attic, wasting the energy your furnace spends to create that heat.
This is also how ice dams form! Heat rising into your attic can melt the snow accumulation on your shingles, which will drain to colder parts of the roof and re-freeze. As that snowmelt refreezes, it creates an ice dam that prevents moisture from properly draining, causing damage to your home.
In the summer months, your roof takes the brunt of the direct summer sun. An attic that is not properly insulated will allow some of that heat to transfer through your ceiling, negating the hard work of your cooling system.
Walls
The insulation within the walls of your home will prevent heat from traveling throughout the rooms in your home. This helps create consistent temperatures throughout each area of your home, and ideally prevents those “hard to reach rooms.”
Furthermore, it is possible for the insulation in your walls to fall or settle over time. We have many homeowners ask us if it is possible to install insulation in existing walls, without tearing down the sheetrock — and the answer is “yes”! Vermont Foam can install environmentally friendly cellulose or injection foam insulation by drilling a few small holes, then closing them up after your walls have been properly insulated.
Basements & Crawl Spaces
Have you ever woken up to cold floors? Have you ever hopped out of bed to turn on the coffeemaker, felt the freezing hardwood or linoleum, and skittered back under the covers until the morning brew was ready? This is one of the telltale signs that your basement or crawl space may be under-insulated.
Similar to an attic, a crawl space lacking proper insulation will allow cold winter air to infiltrate and seep into your home through your floors. It can also lead to excess moisture issues in your crawl space, which will increase your risk of mold growth and poor indoor air quality issues.
Save with Rebates & Vermont Foam
Are you wondering what the best home insulation is? Or, are you unsure if the insulation in your home is up to the task of keeping you and your family comfortable this year? We can diagnose your home insulation issues with a professional energy audit, remove your old insulation, and work with you to determine the best insulation for your attic, walls, and basement.
Plus, we can help you save on the cost with any available rebates and incentives for upgrading your insulation! So it you are looking for a crawl space, wall, or attic insulation contractor near you to complete your home performance upgrades, look no further than Vermont Foam. We are a full service Vermont spray foam attic insulation contractor, but we also carry and install a number of mineral wool, fiberglass batting, and cellulose options like Demilec!