Keeping your home cool in the summer and warm in the winter is crucial to the comfort of you and your family. How you keep your home comfortable, though, can have a big effect on your utility bills. If you leave your home’s comfort up to your HVAC system, you’ll have sky-high utility bills month after month. However, if you take steps to improve your home’s insulation, you’ll be well on your way to maintaining a comfortable home and a comfortably sized utility bill. To help keep your costs under control, here are four ways to help improve your home’s insulation.
Mind the Gaps
Sometimes energy loss is attributable to small, nearly undetectable air leaks around your home. However, there are times when energy loss is caused by big, ugly gaps staring you right in the face. Holes around electrical conduits, water pipes, and other protrusions are big energy losers, causing your HVAC system to work overtime. To improve your home’s insulation, then, it’s vital that you seal these gaps using fiberglass insulation, spray foam, caulk, or some other type of sealant.
Start from the Outside
The best way to defend your home against the elements is to start from the outside. By using an energy-efficient exterior material, such as James Hardie siding products or similar local materials, you give your home an excellent first line of defense so that your other insulation methods can be more effective. It’s important that any type of exterior material you use is backed by a high-quality house wrap to further insulate your home and provide protection against moisture.
From the Top Down
Another important location in your home to insulate is your attic. Since heat rises, a well-insulated attic is especially important in the winter, as the heat from your home will rise through the attic and escape outside if there isn’t adequate insulation. One option here is to have blown-in fiberglass insulation installed. The thicker this insulation is installed, the better your home will be insulated. You can also opt for professionally installed spray foam insulation that is sprayed between the rafters to provide maximum protection against air loss.
Over the Threshold
Another important yet commonly overlooked area to insulate is the doors in your home. Good weather stripping is crucial around the entire perimeter of the door. Especially crucial is a solid threshold that will tightly seal the bottom of the door. Without this threshold, cold air, which is heavier than warm air, will be able to easily find its way into your home.
Start Small
No matter what your budget is, there is always something you can do to help insulate your home. Even if you’re only ready to take on a small project, something as simple as caulking around your windows can go a long way toward insulating your home. Therefore, take a look around your home and see areas that need improvement, then begin projects to take care of these needs as soon as you can.