Improving home insulation is often the most affordable way to improve a home’s energy efficiency and lessen its impact on the environment. Except in more complicated situations, it could be well within your ability to do the job yourself. In our region, the best places to add insulation are the
- Attic
- Walls
- Ductwork for the HVAC system
- Water heater
Attic and Walls
The attic is so important because it has complete exposure to the environment 24 hours a day. The U.S. Department of Energy recommends from 13 to 20 inches of either fiberglass batt or blown-in cellulose for attics in this region. You can inspect the amount of attic insulation by measuring it.
Since walls don’t receive the same kind of exposure that the roof does, recommendations for the amount of insulation in walls is lower. To see if you need more in your home, take a cover plate off an electrical receptacle on an exterior wall (after turning off the circuit breaker) and look inside the wall. If there’s room for more, you can blow either loose fiberglass or cellulose inside. You may also want to leave the job for a home insulation professional, since it requires special drill bits and the ability to replace drywall or exterior holes seamlessly.
Ductwork and Water Heater
Many homes have ductwork running through the attic in our region and if it’s not insulated, they suffer significant thermal losses. Heat always travels toward cold, so in the summer, the air inside the ductwork warms before it reaches its destination. In the winter, the air loses heat to the attic. You can cut heating and cooling bills demonstrably by insulating the ducts.
Keeping your home comfortably warm or cool and heating water are the two largest energy consumers in your home. You can wrap the water heater with specially made insulating blankets to cut back on standby losses, which contribute to higher energy bills.
The pros at Bill Joplin’s Air Conditioning & Heating can help you learn more about home insulation and your HVAC system. We’ve provided HVAC services for homeowners in McKinney, Allen and Frisco since 1978.
