Are you concerned about the high cost of heating your home during the winter? Having a high-efficiency heating system will always help keep your heating costs down. Nonetheless, even the best heating system won’t make all that much of a difference if your house isn’t properly insulated. In this article, we’ll look at why insulation is so important in terms of your comfort and the efficiency of your heating system and also discuss how to know if your house has sufficient insulation.
Why Insulation Is Crucial for Your Comfort
The purpose of insulation is obviously to create a heat-resistant barrier within interior and exterior walls, ceilings, and floors as well as in the attic. In the winter months, all the insulation in your home works to trap heat inside. The layer of insulation on the floor of the attic is especially critical in this regard since it works to prevent much of the hot air from the heating system from rising into the attic and escaping outside through the roof and roof vents. Some of the insulation in a house, such as within the exterior walls and in a crawl space underneath the main floor, also creates a barrier that blocks cold air from getting inside.
If every part of your home isn’t sufficiently insulated, it typically leads to your house getting colder much more quickly and the temperature continually fluctuating. One common issue if any parts of your exterior walls aren’t sufficiently insulated is that you’ll end up with a cold spot in the area. That’s because air from outside penetrates through the wall, resulting in the drywall getting quite cold and the cold then radiating off it and cooling the surrounding air. A lack of insulation can also result in drafts blowing through parts of your house that can make you feel quite chilly even when your thermostat shows your home is fully warm.
How Insulation Impacts Your Energy Bills
Along with impacting your comfort level, a lack of proper insulation also has a major impact on your heating bills. If your house is properly insulated and its exterior is sealed up tight, its heating system shouldn’t need to run all that much even on extremely cold days since all the heat remains trapped inside. In most cases, a heating system should rarely need to run for more than 15 to 20 minutes at a time, and then stay off for at least the same amount of time before needing to turn on again.
If your house isn’t well-insulated and/or has numerous air leaks, your heating system can easily end up running at least twice as much. It may also have to turn on again soon after shutting off as a result of the hot air escaping and the temperature quickly decreasing. The result of these issues is that your heating bills will be far higher than they would be if your house was sufficiently insulated. This is one reason why adding more insulation to your home can really pay off since it can save you lots of money on both your heating and air conditioning bills over the long run.
Another issue is that you’ll need a larger HVAC system than you otherwise would if your house isn’t properly insulated, and this also contributes to higher energy costs. One final concern is that your HVAC unit will typically have a shorter lifespan due to it having a much higher workload.
How to Know if Your Home Is Sufficiently Insulated
Professionals have a variety of tools and methods that they can use to quickly determine how well insulated any home is. One of the best options is thermal imaging. A camera reveals hot spots where heat is escaping and cold spots where air is leaking in from outside. There are also some simple ways you can check the level of insulation in certain parts of the house yourself. For instance, you can feel along the inside of your exterior walls to see if they’re cold. While it’s common for exterior walls to feel slightly colder during the winter, overly cold spots indicate that part of the wall needs additional insulation.
Ensuring your attic is fully insulated generally makes the biggest difference in keeping your home comfortable and your energy bills lower. This is also something you can check yourself by just going into the attic and seeing how warm it feels. All the vents in your roof allow air to continually flow through the attic, which means it should normally never be that much warmer than the temperature outside. If your attic feels almost as warm as the rest of your house, it indicates you’re losing large amounts of heat through the attic floor as a result of it not having sufficient insulation.
Since 1945, WK Mechanical, Inc. has been providing expert indoor comfort services for residential and commercial customers in Middletown, NY and the surrounding areas in Orange County. If you’re concerned about your heating and cooling costs, we offer free in-home comfort consultations. Our team can help you identify ways you can improve your comfort and lower your energy costs. We can also help if you want to upgrade to a more efficient HVAC system or take care of your repair and maintenance needs to ensure your heater and air conditioner continue operating effectively. To schedule a comfort consultation or any other service, like indoor air quality services, contact us today.
