Like many people, I’m anxious for spring to arrive. IT’s about time to break out of the gray and dreary funk that cold weather, snow, and a barren landscape has brought upon us. With spring comes renewed life and the freedom to enjoy much of mother nature’s bounty.
This is also the time to look ahead to summer. Invariably, as your flowers bloom and tomatoes ripen, the sun’s radiant energy will penetrate your home through your roof, diminishing you’re A/C unit’s effectiveness.
Don’t know what I’m talking about? That’s not surprising. Many homeowners aren’t aware that the number one factor impacting their utility bill each month comes from radiant energy.
For example, in the winter your furnace works to produce heated air which circulates throughout your home to keep you comfortable. Warm air rises in search of cooler air and naturally invades that space. The standard insulation you have in your attic is ill-equipped to stop the loss of that heated air; the insulation can’t keep the warm air from rising out through the attic and into the atmosphere. But radiant barrier can.
Radiant barrier is a thin, lightweight product made from 99% aluminum and formed into a
long, perforated sheet shipped on a roll. When you cut strips of radiant barrier and lay them along your attic floor on top of your existing insulation, it blocks the heated air from rising, reflecting it back into the living spaces. Moisture caused by evaporation escapes thorough the tiny perforations in the radiant barrier.
Radiant barrier also works in the summer. When you tack strips up along the rafters in your roof, it serves to block the entry of radiant energy from the sun’s rays during the hot summer months. If the radiant energy can’t enter your home (and infiltrate your cooler living spaces), then your A/C unit doesn’t have to work as hard, and your energy bill lowers.