How Good Your Home Is Insulated

Information may not be reliable

If you are looking for a reputable home inspection service company, ASHI Suncoast can help you out. You will find a variety of companies to choose from no matter what type of home inspection service you are looking for. One thing your home inspection company should be looking for is how well your home is insulated.

Why Insulation is Needed

If you want to see how much insulation really is needed, you should go to your attic on a very hot day. It is very common for attic temperatures to reach 150 degrees in the summerbecause there is not enough insulation in the home.

How Much Insulation is Needed

It is not a one-stop process in order to determine if you have enough insulation in your home. Different climate zones are going to need different amounts of insulation and you can check on the EPA website how much you need. You then need to see how your home’s insulation measures up to Energy Star's recommendations. If you can see the floor joists in your attic, you need more insulation. It is very important to have the correct amount of attic insulation – in the summer, your attic can become an oven and in the winter, heat is going to rise and go to the attic and make your furnace work more than is actually necessary. The attic is the easiest place to add insulation because you can simply have loose-fill insulation blown in on the top of existing insulation in your attic. As a general rule, attics are going to need 12 inches of insulation.

If you have a crawlspace or unheated basement, the insulation needs to be between the floor joists. If not, you can install batt insulation with no facing on it and it is easy and cheap to do.

Energy Audits

An energy audit can help you determine how your home is losing energy. The energy audit will use a specialized piece of equipment that is called a blower door test. The blower door will seal one of the doors in your house and blow air inside it, which will allow them to use infrared thermometers to find places where air is leaking out of your home. This test should be especially done if you live in an older home or one that is drafty in the winter time.

Walls

Checking insulation in exterior walls is a more difficult process because the insulation is behind the drywall, which can be difficult and expensive. If you do live in an older house, it is definitely something that is worth looking into. If you live in an older home, it is very likely that there is not going to be any insulation behind the walls.

Conclusion

If you want to save energy in your home, it is very important to check and make sure you have enough insulation in the basement, behind your walls and in the attic. If you do find out that you need more, adding insulation is relatively inexpensive.