Your local Kansas City roofer can play an important role in boosting your home’s energy efficiency and shaving your air conditioning bill. By adding a radiant barrier in your Kansas City home’s attic, a professional roofer, like Bill West Roofing, can reduce heat infiltration from direct sunlight.
What is a Radiant Barrier?
If you have ever used a metallic foil emergency blanket, you have wrapped yourself in a radiant barrier. Your body’s heat—infrared energy—was bounced back from the highly reflective film so that you didn’t get cold, even though the blanket was thinner than a sheet of paper.
For your home, a qualified Kansas City roofer can take advantage of a re-roofing job to add a radiant barrier in your home’s attic:
- The thin metallic film is applied over the roof rafters before fresh sheathing is nailed on
- The radiant barrier droops a little between rafters
- The drooping film provides a slight airspace between film and roof sheathing
Even if you are not scheduled to have your entire roof—including sheathing—replaced, your helpful Kansas City roofer can install a radiant barrier in your attic. In this case, the radiant barrier is applied to the underside of the rafters. Radiant film can be simply metallic foil, or can be combined with a backer such as Kraft paper, plastic, or oriented strand board (OSB).
When to Use a Radiant Barrier
Kansas City is in Zone 4 of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s nationwide energy map. This means your home could save up to $75 a year on energy bills, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, if:
- your HVAC system’s ductwork runs through your attic
- you routinely run central air conditioning throughout Kansas City’s hot season, from May 30 to September 15
- you have had trouble keeping your home cool even after adding insulation
How a Radiant Barrier Lowers Costs
The sun heats up your roof, and that heat transfers into the sheathing and then into the air in your attic. A radiant barrier installed by a professional Kansas City roofer during re-roofing reflects the heat back through the roof, so your attic stays cool. Once a radiant barrier has been installed:
- Heat cannot infiltrate your living space.
- Your central air conditioner works less.
- Your energy bills drop, year after year.
A qualified Kansas City roofer, such as Bill West Roofing, can efficiently and quickly install a radiant barrier in your attic and help you start saving energy and money immediately. Contact Bill West Roofing today to have a radiant barrier added to your home.