Home insulation is the first line of defense in the fight against the bitter winter weather and exorbitant home energy expenditures. According to estimates from the Environmental Protection Agency, homeowners may reduce their heating and cooling expenses by 15% on average by caulking air leaks and insulating their attics.
Expert DIY guidance on estimating the amount of insulation you should add, knowing R-values, and fundamental insulation principles.
And that is merely the norm.
Due to the harsher environment and perhaps higher costs of energy for heating, savings may be even more significant if you reside in the northern region of the US.
Recognizing R-Values
R-value is a measurement of an insulation’s efficacy. The ability of a material to insulate increases with its R-value.
The R-values you should aim for in your home depend on your climate, followed by the area of the house that needs insulation. The attic needs to be insulated the most because it loses the most heat out of any room in the house.
For instance, the R-value of a fiberglass blanket insulation is approximately 3.27 per inch.
The range of loose-fill insulation might be between 2.2 and 4.0, depending on how well it is put.
Estimating Insulation Requirements
You’ll need to measure the thickness of the insulation in your attic if it already contains some to determine how much more you need to install. To avoid falling through the ceiling below, only stand or kneel on entirely supported planks or joists in the attic. If you do so, you risk doing so.
An attic should be air sealed before being insulated, especially in cold areas where warm air rising into the attic can lead to heat loss and moisture issues. Utilizing expanding foam to fill in gaps and connections where walls, chimneys, plumbing stacks, electrical lines, and other structures enter the attic is known as air sealing. This prevents the attic from losing expensively heated air via the rooms below.
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