Insulation is an essential part of any home, regardless of the climate you live in. Insulation, in combination with proper ventilation, helps to stabilize the temperature inside of your home so that it’s not too hot in the summer and not too cold in the winter.
Because attics are located at the top of the house, they are most exposed to and affected by the constantly changing conditions, especially in a climate like Chicago. And the attic is where the most amount of heat and cold is lost and gained. This is why homeowners should consider their attics as the topmost priority when thinking about insulating their homes.
Save Money on your Energy Bills
When properly installed, attic insulation can significantly lower your energy bills because you cut the cost of heating and cooling your house. A properly insulated attic will also double the lifespan of your air conditioning and heating systems, given that they don’t have to work as hard in keeping a consistent temperature inside your house.
Prevent Mold Formation and Ice Dams
Mold Formation and Ice Damming are due to improper insulation or improper ventilation, or a combination of both. Without proper insulation and ventilation, warm moist air that goes up into the attic gets trapped inside, causing mold growth.
In the winter, ice dams form due to trapped attic heat melting the snow on the roof. When the melting snow refreezes at the gutters, it creates a barrier and subsequent pools of water starts to back up inside the soffit and eventually inside the house.
The key to an energy efficient attic is to have a balanced ventilation and adequate insulation installed. Balanced ventilation means having a proper intake and exhaust ventilation that creates an effective flow of air in your attic, resulting in cooler attics in the summer and warmer and dryer attics in the winter. The intake ventilation comes underneath the soffit, and the vents on your roof are the exhaust ventilation. Add air leak protection to the soffit and roof ventilation and you get a proper roof system.
Insulation is rated in terms of its R-value (the measure of a material’s resistance to heat loss). The higher the R-value, the better its insulating power. One of the highest rated forms of insulation is Blown-In Cellulose Insulation, a product that is blown into a designate犀利士
d space using a blowing machine.