You're thinking about new insulation for your house. You're hoping for lower energy costs and to be a bit more comfortable in the summer and winter. But where is the best place to insulate your home?
South Central Services has insulated hundreds of homes in and around Carlisle, Pennsylvania. We pride ourselves on delivering real results for homeowners. This article will count down the top three most effective places to insulate in existing homes.
Third Place: Basement
Basements always need insulation. Whether in the ceiling or on the walls, basement insulation is required by building codes. But why?
Your basement is part of your thermal envelope, which forms the border between your home and the outside. Basements also exist below-grade, meaning below the ground. The ground has significantly different temperatures than your home, so insulation is essential.
The ground also poses concerns about vapor transfer. Your basement walls are porous, whether concrete, block, or stone. Without an effective vapor barrier, your basement insulation could face moisture issues.
Basement band boards (rim joists) are the key area that make or break your comfort and energy costs. The band boards are the area where the ceiling and walls meet. This is also where the construction transitions from porous walls to wood studs. Since the material changes, this area is especially vulnerable to air and vapor transfer.
Basement band board insulation is worth considering when dealing with a drafty house or high energy bills. In addition to closed cell spray foam in the rim joists, you can also update the wall or ceiling insulation.
Reinsulating your basement walls gives an excellent opportunity to finish your basement and increase your resale value. Or, you can opt for an effective layer in your basement ceiling, largely ignoring the basement as a living space.
Second Place: Crawl Space
In some homes, there is a crawl space instead of a basement. Or, there might be both below your home! Like a basement, crawl spaces can contribute to cold drafts and raise your energy bills.
However, a crawl space is even less appealing than a basement. Many crawl spaces around Greencastle have moisture issues, mildew, and pest infestations. A tarp laid haphazardly on the dirt floor does little to keep the area clean. Worst of all, the drafty air pulled from a crawl space is usually more dirty than the air from a basement.
By insulating your crawl space, you can eliminate all of these problems. As a bonus, your home may increase in resale value. The crawl spaces we encapsulate are dry, clean, accessible, and have conditioned air. All of these features can contribute to the value of your home.
Besides a potential resale value increase, insulating your crawl space can also deliver these benefits:
- Cleaner air
- Fewer pest infestations
- Improved accessibility
- Lower energy costs
How does insulating your crawl space achieve all this? It all comes down to the encapsulation method.
South Central Services encapsulates crawl spaces with closed cell spray foam and thick plastic sheathing. Fastening the sheathing on the crawl space floor creates a vapor barrier between the dirt floor and the crawl space. Closed cell foam is spray-applied to the porous crawl space walls and band boards to insulate them seamlessly.
The result is a clean area joined to the conditioned space of your home. By installing a crawl space dehumidifier or tapping into existing HVAC ductwork, the air in the crawl space can be conditioned, just like your living space.
First Place: Attic
Despite the great benefits of basement and crawl space insulation, your attic is the best place you can retrofit with insulation. Effective attic insulation is always our first recommendation when examining a home with high costs and seasonal discomfort. But why? What's so special about your attic?
The value of your attic insulation comes down to two scientific concepts:
- The stack effect
- Radiant heat
The stack effect is felt most prevalently in the winter. During the snowy months, the heated air you pay for is drawn to the cold air outside. Heat always moves to cold. Without effective insulation upstairs, the heat will escape through the roof. This is a waste of your money, makes your home colder, and is an inefficient use of energy.
(When the hot air leaves your house in the winter, it's replaced with cold air from your basement or crawl space. Following up your attic insulation upgrade with one of these other options can help to limit the stack effect even more!)
Radiant heat is more prevalent in the summer months. We often feel the heat of the sun through radiant heat. As the sun shines down on us, we feel its heat on our skin and through our clothes. Wearing a black t-shirt outside makes us sweat more than wearing a white one. These principles apply to our homes, too.
When the sun beats against a darkly colored roof, the heat of the sun is absorbed into the attic. This increases the heat upstairs to unbelievable temperatures. What might have been an uncomfortable 100 degrees Fahrenheit upstairs can skyrocket to 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Not only does that heat press through the attic floor into the living space, but it can also cook any HVAC ductwork running in the attic, making the HVAC system less effective.
No matter the time of year, you can benefit from effective attic insulation. A functional insulation system upstairs will pay for itself over time, especially during more extreme seasons like summer and winter.
Attic insulation also offers more options than below-grade spaces like the basement and crawl space. As an above-grade area, your attic could be insulated with blown-in insulation, open cell spray foam, or closed cell spray foam. These variations allow for various budgets to be accommodated.
Spray foam insulation is a more premium option with more versatility and longevity. However, blown-in insulation paired with an airtight seal is nothing to sneeze at as long as you don't have HVAC ductwork upstairs.
Insulation Upgrades Should Lower Your Energy Costs.
How do we rank insulation upgrades? One of the primary evaluation criteria is its effect on energy bills. Heating and cooling your home isn't getting any less expensive. The role of insulation is to keep conditioned air inside. An excellent insulation upgrade will do a better job of keeping conditioned air inside, which will, in turn, lower your energy costs.
Basement band board insulation can lower your energy costs by limiting cold air infiltration, which would interfere with the performance of your HVAC system. Crawl space encapsulation offers a similar result, along with other benefits.
Attic insulation upgrades rank first because their impact on energy bills is most significant. An attic with little to no insulation may see a 30% to 70% decrease in energy costs by insulating and air-sealing upstairs.
It isn't worth investing in if your insulation upgrade can't offer lower energy costs. By lowering your energy bills, your insulation can offer a tangible and financial return on investment.
Insulation Upgrades Should Make Your Home More Comfortable.
Working hand in hand with lower energy costs is comfortability. Comfort is more difficult to measure than energy bills. You can compare statements year-over-year to see the financial impact an insulation upgrade can have. But how do you evaluate comfort?
We get used to being in uncomfortable environments. We may dress in layers to stay warm inside during winter, or we use a fan when our homes are sticky in summer. It may be less common for us to articulate discomfort, but we are happier people when our home environment is pleasant to live in.
If an insulation upgrade won't make your home more comfortable, it isn't worth the investment. Never insulate for insulation's sake. We love to hear success stories from our customers about the increase in comfort after getting insulation and an air-seal in one of these three areas.
The Bottom Line About Where To Insulate Your Home
Upgrading your home's insulation can significantly impact your energy efficiency. The most energy-efficient upgrade you can make is an air-seal and sufficient R-value in your attic. Once your attic is properly insulated, you can insulate your basement or crawl space to stop cold drafts.
Now that you understand where to insulate in your home, your next step is to:
- Discover if spray foam can make your home more comfortable
- Learn how you could save on your energy costs with spray foam insulation
- Estimate the cost of insulation in your attic
Disclaimer: While we strive to publish information accurate to building science, local building codes and standards supersede our recommendations.
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