The Importance of Air Sealing and Insulating Attics
Homeowners across the U.S. tend to mistakenly believe that proper attic insulation is only adequate in the cold regions of the country, to maintains the home’s heat.
Larry Janesky, founder of Dr. Energy Saver explains that insulation is also needed in warmer areas. Insulation prevents heat transfer. It prevents hot air from being transferred to the outside in the wintertime, and prevents the attic’s scorching heat from being transferred into the living areas of your home during the summer. In doing so, you are considerably relieving the burden on your air conditioner systems.
Furthermore, Larry explains why insulation without proper air sealing won’t help you save much energy. When a home is built, there are a lot of holes left on the building envelope around pipes, wiring, recessed lights, duct chases, etc. All these holes will allow conditioned air — that you paid to heat or cool — to leak out of the house, and unconditioned air from the outside to enter the home. As a result, your HVAC system will work much harder to keep up with the air exchange, significantly increasing your heating or cooling bills. Because the energy loss through the typical attic can be enormous, a properly air sealed and insulated attic becomes the main component of a truly green and energy efficient home, and it is our main priority at Dr. Energy Saver.
If you would like to learn more about saving energy through energy efficient attics and many other ways to save money and energy, visit our website or call us for a comprehensive home energy audit!
Super Attic – Attic Insulation System
The new Supper Attic, attic insulation system helps you save money and energy by elimination energy loss through the attic. Supper Attic makes your home more comfortable year round.
Installing Jumper Ducts to Make Bedrooms More Comfortable
Climate control and comfort in a home depends on much more than the size, power and efficiency of the heating and cooling system. It depends on proper insulation, air sealing and, above all, it depends on the air duct’s distribution and adequate balance between return and supply ducts.
Larry Janesky, founder of Dr. Energy Saver, was recently in Central Florida helping a homeowner with a high cooling bills, and uneven temperatures around the house.
The bedrooms in his house had only supply ducts. The only return ducts were located in the common areas. Using state-of-the-art equipment, Larry demonstrates how the lack of return ducts in this home’s bedrooms was increasing the positive pressure in the rooms above acceptable levels, consistently pushing air out of the house, and causing unconditioned, hot and humid air from the outside to be sucked into the common areas of the house. The differences in pressure made the air conditioner work harder, without ever making the whole house comfortable.
When homeowners experience similar problems, they tend to mistakenly believe that they need a bigger, and more powerful heating and cooling system. This is why it is a good idea to call in an energy conservation specialist, before you commit to buying an HVAC upgrade.
In this case, for example, just by adding a return duct to each bedroom, Dr. Energy Saver experts brought the pressure levels in the rooms down to normal. The temperatures are now even around the house, comfort has improved and the old air conditioner now works more efficiently.
If you want to save money, energy and make your home more comfortable, call a Dr. Energy Saver dealer in your area!
Sealing and Insulation in New Construction
Larry Janesky from Dr. Energy Saver walks us through the process of air sealing and insulating two newly constructed condominium units.
In new construction, you have many choices of insulation material to chose from: spray foam, rigid foam board, fiberglass, cellulose or a combination of these.
Here a combination of fiberglass bats with blown and spray cellulose to insulate different areas in these units.
Because fiberglass insulation doesn’t stop air flow, the structure needs to be completely air sealed before the bats are installed. Special attention should be paid to windows, doors, and gaps around plumbing, wiring, lighting fixtures, and ducts. The ducts also need to be sealed before the insulation and the drywall are installed.
The walls between the conditioned area and any unheated, un-insulated area of the house like the garage and the attic space upstairs also receive air sealing and insulation.
Insulating the Attic and Cool Roof Technology
The sun tends to heat conventional roof shingles up to temperatures as high as 140 or 150 degrees F during the summer. That heat is then radiated to the attic, which reaches scorching temperatures, usually 40 to 50 degrees hotter than the outside air.
The heat in the attic then radiates through the ceiling into the living areas making your whole house uncomfortable. To make matters worse, some homes have air conditioner ducts running through the attic. Picture this: you pay for the electricity to run your air conditioner to cool the air down to 50 degrees, and then run the cold air through metallic ducts in the attic, that are baking at 150 degrees. Your air conditioner will have to work much harder to keep up, and your cooling bills will be extremely high, especially if you live in warmer areas of the U.S.
There are many things you can do to cool down your roof and your attic while relieving the burden on your air conditioner. Proper attic insulation and air sealing, will keep the heat from radiating into the living areas. A radiant heat barrier will reflect the sun’s heat away from the home, and help cool down the attic.
To significantly improve conditions in the roof and attic, there is also the cool roof technology. Cool roof shingles are built with materials that reflect the sun’s heat, rather than absorbing it like conventional shingles. They also come in various colors so you can have the roof color you want, without the heat absorption.
If you are building a home, or planning to replace your roof, consider cool roof technology. Contact your local Dr. Energy Saver for more information about cool roof technology, attic insulation, radiant barriers and many other options to make your home more comfortable and energy efficient.
The Difference Between Low and High Efficiency Air Conditioners
If your air conditioning system is 10 years old or more, you can bet it is wasting a lot of energy and costing you a lot of money. Ten or fifteen years ago, the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rate (SEER) of the best available air conditioner was around 6 to 8, which is less than half of today’s high efficiency models with a SEER of 19 to 20. SEER is the measurement of how much energy and money spent to run the air conditioner is actually being converted into cold air.
Older models also lose some of the SEER as they age. A model that was originally operated at 6 to 8 SEER, after many years, may be operating at SEERs as low as 6 or 4.
In addition to lower SEERs, older units are often improperly maintained. Dirt and moisture accumulate around the coils and ducts, while the A/C unit also becomes the breeding ground and dissemination device for mold and other common allergens, viruses, bacteria and many other pollutants. All of these pollutants will compromise indoor air quality and the health of your family
A modern, high efficiency device contains an array of features that will not only cool the air more efficiently with much higher SEERs; but also filter and rid the air from dirt, viruses and moisture as it passes through the unit. High efficiency units are usually much larger than older models to allow for better heat dispersion. Two-compressor, two-stage units allow the air conditioner to run at only 70% of its capacity in cooler days.
They also operate at variable speed, which draws moisture out of the air and saves energy.
Larry Janesky, president and owner of Dr. Energy Saver explains that the upfront cost of an air conditioning unit is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of costs. The bulk of the cost of having an air conditioner is paid in energy bills over the lifespan of the unit. It is not a smart move to get the least expensive unit to avoid higher upfront costs and end up spending 2 to 3 times more money to run the air conditioner over the years.
If you are shopping for an Air Conditioner or Heating System upgrade, give Dr. Energy Saver a call. We will evaluate your home’s energy consumption, and recommend only models that will give you the best savings per dollar invested, within your specifications and budget.
Keeping Your Home Cooler with a Radiant Barrier
On the Job in Florida, Larry Janesky, President and Owner of Dr. Energy Saver, installed a radiant barrier in an attic to make this homeowner’s home more comfortable and to help reduce the cooling bills.
Florida’s warm sun causes most roofs, which absorb the sun’s heat, to get really hot. That heat is then transferred to the attic where it can reach scorching temperatures as high as 140 degrees! When the attic, like this one, stores the air ducts, the 55-degree air in the ducts is surrounded by the 140-degree heat before it reaches the living space– making the air conditioner work much harder than needed to keep the house cool and comfortable.
To help relieve the burden on this homeowner’s air conditioner unit, Dr. Energy Saver opted for installing a radiant barrier in the attic. A radiant barrier reflects the sun heat from the roof and helps the attic remain at least 20 degrees cooler. This will make the whole house feel cooler and the air conditioner will work more efficiently.
Regardless of regional climate and how drastic the seasonal changes are in your area, your local Dr. Energy Saver home energy conservation expert will always have the perfect solution to make your home comfortable and energy efficient year round! Give us a call!
Air Sealing and Insulating a Conventional Attic
The energy conservation experts at Dr. Energy Saver first look into the attic when helping improve a home’s energy efficiency, because a properly insulated and air sealed attic is the main component of a green home!
Larry Janesky, owner and president of Dr. Energy Saver, explains how the ‘stack effect’ can make an uninsulated attic a huge source of energy loss. Heated air from the conditioned space rises and escapes through the vents in the attic. As a result, air from the outside is sucked in from the lower parts of the building, forcing the heating and cooling system to work harder to keep the temperatures comfortable.
Dr. Energy Saver air seals the space to prevent air from the conditioned areas from leaking into the attic. Insulation is then added to raise the R-Value up to the U.S. Department on Energy’s recommended values for each particular region. In the cold northeast, for example, attics should have at least an R-60 for insulation.
The insulation material and method of application varies according to each case. In most homes, blown cellulose is the preferred method although lose-fill fiberglass insulation can also be used. It is a good idea to insulate HVAC ducts that run through unconditioned attics to prevent heat loss. Spray foam can be used to insulate and seal gaps in ductwork. Attics that are used for storage or housing utilities can also be conditioned and insulated with Dr. Energy Saver’s SuperAttic™ System.
Are your heating and cooling bills high? Is your home wasting energy? Do you experience uneven and uncomfortable temperatures throughout the house? Call Dr. Energy Saver for a comprehensive home energy evaluation and let us show you how we can make your home healthier, more comfortable and affordable to own!
Air Sealing and Insulating a Crawl Space
Before Dr. Energy Saver was called in for this job, this homeowner was wasting a lot of energy and money through his unsealed, uninsulated concrete crawl space. For 20 years since the home was built, an 8′ x 16′ crawl space door was allowing unconditioned outdoor air to enter the home and cause cold drafts, cold floors in the master suite right above the crawl space, overall discomfort, and higher heating bills. Freezing air from the crawl space was consistently infiltrating the living areas, causing uneven temperatures throughout the house. A lot of heat was also being lost through the uninsulated heating ducts that ran through the cold crawl space. All of these problems made the HVAC system work much harder to keep the home comfortable.
To solve these problems, Dr. Energy Saver opted for air sealing and insulating the cold crawl space walls with the revolutionary SilverGlo™ foam board insulation. SilverGlo foam provides a higher R-Value per inch and is lined with silver radiant foil, to help reflect heat back into the crawl space area. The rim joists were insulated with spray foam insulation, which also sealed around all gaps including the air conditioner lines and air ducts. The crawl space vent was also closed and air sealed. This homeowner now has a healthier, greener, more comfortable and energy efficient home.
If your house sits on a vented crawl space, you may be losing a lot of money in heating and cooling expenses, and exposing your home and family to moisture related problems; such as mold, dry rot and moisture loving pests like termites and carpenter ants. All of these problems can seriously compromise your family’s health, your home’s value and structural integrity overtime. Your home is one of your most important assets, and we don’t want your vented crawl space to deplete your home’s value or comfort or hurt your family’s health.
Call Dr. Energy Saver for a full crawl space evaluation today!
Insulating the Pipes and Walls of a Boiler Room
In this home, recently retrofitted by Dr. Energy Saver to become more energy efficient, a huge amount of heat and energy was being lost through the uninsulated foundation walls and the pipes in the boiler room.
According to laws of physics temperatures move from more to less. In this home, the heat produced by the boiler unit was being dispersed into the boiler room through uninsulated pipes. That heat in the boiler room was then conductively transferred to the outside, through the concrete walls. That means that the boiler unit was consistently working harder to keep the home comfortable, since a significant portion of the heat being produced never made it into the conditioned living space. In other words, a portion of the air that this homeowner was paying to heat was being wasted in the boiler room. Dr. Energy Saver solved that problem by insulating the pipes in the boiler room and the foundation walls, to keep that heat from being lost to the outside. Foundation wall insulation is always a great idea in any home, but it is a must in basements and crawl spaces that house HVAC ducts and combustion appliances.
If you want to learn about more ways to get the best performance and savings out of your existing heating and cooling system, or for information about HVAC system upgrades, visit our website or contact Dr. Energy Saver to schedule a home energy evaluation.
Insulating with the Super Attic System
In this job, Dr. Energy Saver opted for installing the SuperAttic™ System, because it will prevent enormous energy losses from the ducts and HVAC unit housed in the attic. As a result, this home is now healthier, quieter and more energy efficient.
A properly insulated and air sealed attic is one of the main components of a green, energy efficient home. Because the heated air in a house tends to rise and escape through openings in the upper levels of the building, attics need to be sealed to prevent air leakage. Air leaks in attics are the source of many problems, including ice damming on the roof, and mold. In addition, inadequate insulation causes drastic variations in attic temperatures throughout the year. Scorching attic temperatures during the summer or freezing temperatures during winter make your heating and cooling system work harder to keep your home comfortable. If you have HVAC and ducts running through the attic, the energy loss is even more significant.
There are two options to create an energy efficient attic. You can seal the living space from the attic and blow a thick layer of insulation on the attic floor, excluding the vented, unconditioned attic from the internal building envelope. Or you can use the SuperAttic™ System, to seal, insulate and condition the attic, including it in the building envelope, while keeping the roof effectively vented.
Is your improperly insulated attic costing you money? Would you like to enjoy a more comfortable home and lower your heating and cooling bills? Dr. Energy Saver can help!
Dense Packing a Cathedral Ceiling
This 80-year old cape-style house is a Sears, Roebuck and Co. home, from when they used to sell houses through a catalogue. The home’s attic and wall cavities were previously insulated by Dr. Energy Saver and Larry Janesky’s team is now back on the job to perform additional energy efficient retrofits. This time, they will be insulating an existing cathedral ceiling and shed roof with dense packing cellulose.
This is a technique that dense packs 3.7 lb of cellulose per cubic feet into existing wall and roof cavities. If properly applied the densely packed cellulose provides excellent R-value between 3.5 and 4.0 per inch, and also helps stop air flow.
The cathedral ceiling in this home hangs above a charming farm room, carefully restored with a stained wooden ceiling. To avoid disrupting this cozy little room, Dr. Energy Saver opted for accessing the ceiling from the outside. Cellulose application is a messy process and in an existing home it should only be done from the inside of the living space if there is absolutely no other choice.
The roof above that room is an unvented roof. There was a ridge vent, but no soffit vents so Larry and his team opted for an unvented assembling. When they took a portion of the roof off, they noticed that it was remodeled at least a couple of times over the course of many years, and received two layers of rigid foam insulation, amounting to an R-Value of about 20. The problem is that the rigid foam was not air sealed so air was still leaking out of the house. To make matters worse, bees had found a home in the roof eating parts of the foam board and causing dust to fall from the roof into the room below. By dense packing cellulose to insulate that cathedral ceiling the air flow will be interrupted. Cellulose is also treated with Borate, a harmless, naturally-occurring mineral that has the ability to deter bugs, so bees, ants and termites won’t find that ceiling so inviting anymore.
The shed roof was also insulated from the outside. The team took down the gutters and the fascia board to access the little attic space below the shed, blowing the cellulose through each open bay.
Dr. Energy Saver takes pride in making old and new homes more comfortable, energy efficient and environmentally friendly every day. If you have uneven temperatures around the home, rooms that are too hot or simply cold or drafty, or if you just want to save money in heating and cooling, we can help. Call Dr. Energy Saver today for a complete home energy evaluation.
To learn about more ways to save money and lower your energy bills, visit our website and watch other episodes of Dr. Energy Saver’s ‘On the Job’ video series.
