Attic Insulation is Important in the Summer, Too!
Proper insulation is critical to the comfort of your Southwest Florida home, and it can help reduce your energy costs in both the winter and summer. One of the easiest ways to increase the energy efficiency of your home is by adding attic insulation.
Why Attic Insulation Is Important During the Summer
Most people know that attic insulation is critical during the winter to keep the heat inside your home, but it also plays an important role during the summer. As the sun beats down on the surface of your roof, it heats the air in the attic. Because the air in your home is cool, the heat will naturally try to travel from the attic to the interior of your home to reach equilibrium with the indoor air temperature. Attic insulation slows this process down, increasing the efficiency of your cooling system and keeping you comfortable at a reasonable cost.
How Much Insulation Is Necessary
In the Southwest Florida region, the current recommended insulation levels for attics range from R-30 to R-60. The R-Value measures a material’s resistance to the flow of heat, and the higher the value is, the more it prevents heat transfer between the interior and the exterior of a structure.
How to Add Insulation
If your attic is not finished, it’s relatively easy to add more insulation. Fiberglass batts can be added over the top of loose fill, fiberglass or foam, and should be added in perpendicular layers to existing batt insulation. Loose-fill insulation can be added to existing loose insulation; or if there’s no insulation, spray foam, fiberglass or loose fill can be used. Be sure to leave the eaves open for proper roof ventilation, and use baffles between the rafters where the roof meets the wall to promote airflow. If your attic has three to four inches of existing insulation, it’s recommended to add R-25 to R-38 for the best results.
To learn more about the importance of proper attic insulation, contact our team at Conditioned Air. Our service area includes Bradenton, Naples, Ft. Myers and Sarasota.