Insulating your home carries many benefits for enhanced comfort, lower energy bills, and reducing the load on your HVAC system. Additionally, home insulation is a practical home efficiency upgrade that’s generally good for the life of your home with immediate benefits. Use this guide to learn which areas of your home to insulate and the types of insulating materials that may work best for you.
Where to Insulate
You may perform a visual inspection of your home to see where insulation is needed in the envelope. There are companies that perform thermal imaging scans that identify locations of the energy waste. Following are common areas where insulation is needed and coordinating R-values, as suggested by the U.S. Department of Energy:
- Attic: Insulating your attic to R-60 slows or stops heat gain/loss to and from the living spaces.
- Exterior walls: Exterior walls in the Amarillo area should be insulated up to R-15.
- Basement and crawl spaces: Insulate to R-30 beneath the flooring.
- Garages: Shared walls and ceilings with an attached garage should be insulated to R-15.
- Ductwork: Air ducts located in unconditioned attics, basements, and crawl spaces should be insulated to R-8.
Insulating Materials
There are just about as many types of insulating materials as there are places in your home to insulate. Following are popular and practical options:
- Fiberglass: Fiberglass rolls, batts, and loose fill are the most popular insulating materials. Any type of fiberglass may be used for attics and open wall cavities.
- Cellulose: Loose-fill cellulose is denser than fiberglass and offers better sound-dampening properties. Dense-packed cellulose is popular for exterior walls (new home construction) and attics.
- Spray-in foam: Spray-in foam is superb for insulating attics, existing exterior walls, and beneath flooring in ventilated basements and crawl spaces.
- Rigid foam: Rigid foam board is designed for insulating the walls of basements and crawl spaces and for insulating ductwork outside the living spaces.
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Our goal is to help educate our customers in Amarillo, Texas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).
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