attic insulation

How Attic Insulation Impacts Your Home’s Energy Consumption

attic insulation

Kansas City is in Region 4 of the federal Energy Star program’s insulation map of our country. This means attics of our homes should have R38 to R60 insulation to provide the greatest return on investment and help lower energy bills. We at Bill West Roofing know that no matter how energy-efficient your Kansas City home’s roof is, the attic beneath it could be defeating your chance to save money and conserve energy

Region 4 Balancing Act

The Energy Star program carefully weighs the cost of adding insulation against the potential savings to you, the homeowner, in lower energy bills. For our area of the country, having attic insulation between R38 and R60 is cost-effective.

The R-value of any material is a measure of the material’s resistance to thermal transfer. The secret ingredient of almost all insulation—whether rock wool, rigid foam, fiberglass, or cellulose—is air. Air pockets slow the transfer of your home’s heated air through the ceiling into the attic, and from the attic out through your roof.

Roll It Out

If you have no attic insulation, you will greatly reduce your energy bills by adding R60 insulation. If in your attic you can see the tops of joists, you do not have enough insulation and may want to consider adding R38.

Purchasing and installing attic insulation yourself is simple, but you can choose to have it professionally installed. If you choose to do the job yourself and already have some attic insulation, roll out unfaced (paperless) insulation at right angles to the joists.

If you have no attic insulation, you can either add R60 between joists or, better, lay R30 between joists and then run another layer of R30 at right angles.

Cost/Benefit Analysis

Adding attic insulation helps in many ways:

  • You spend less cooling your home in summer because you separate hot attic air from the air in your living space
  • You spend less heating your home because you prevent heat from rising out of the living space
  • You reduce humidity build-up in your attic in hot summer months
  • Adding horizontal insulation is more cost-effective than insulating walls
  • Adding a radiant barrier to the underside of sheathing helps even more
  • Attic insulation can increase the useful life of your roof by keeping attic temperatures close to outside air temperatures

To learn more energy saving ideas for your Kansas City home, contact our team at Bill West Roofing today.

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