Are you tired of the high cost of electricity?
Wondering if there is any end in sight?
Think of your home as a Styrofoam cooler. As long as the sides bottom & top are well insulated and aren’t exposed to extreme heat, than the cool stays in longer during the summer and the heat stays in longer during the winter. The longer the cool stays in the home during the summer the less often your A/C cycles. The longer the heat stays in your home during the winter the less often your Heater cycles. The less often your A/C & heat cycle the lower your utility bill is.
How do you keep the cool in longer during the summer and the heat in longer during the winter?
There are four areas to address when it come to having an efficient attic.
- Ventilation
- Air Infiltration
- Insulation
- Radiant heat
Ventilation: The key to good ventilation is the proper ratio of lower intake to higher upper exhaust. Too many homes have plenty of turbines, vent ridges, low profiles or power vents but not enough intakes to move the hot air out quickly. Thus hot stagnant air rises to the higher spots of the attic and doesn’t move out quick enough because there isn’t sufficient fresh cooler air from outside to replace it. The heat builds up and saturates the insulation, transferring into the home. This brings us to the next area.
Air Infiltration: Every hole in a homes interior walls and ceilings goes up into the attic or down into the Slab. Plug outlets, Light switches, light fixtures, plumbing vents, air vents and return vents. All these openings present a possible air infiltration. When the A/C turns on and blows cool air into the home the return vents draw that cool air back. At the same time this draw is pulling hot air and dust from the holes in the walls and ceiling. Properly sealing these penetrations minimizes this transfer.
Sealing Ducts: In houses with forced-air heating and cooling systems, ducts are used to distribute conditioned air throughout the house. In a typical house, however, about 20 percent of the air that moves through the duct system is lost due to leaks and poorly sealed connections. The result is higher utility bills and difficulty keeping the house comfortable, no matter how the thermostat is set.
Insulation: Insulation has an r-value of approximately 2.5 – 3 per inch. If you can see the top of your joist when you look at the floor of your attic, you have less than R-15 above the living space of your home. Think of your insulation as a dry sponge. If you poor water on top of it, water doesn’t drip from the bottom until it is saturated. Your attic insulation is cool early in the morning. As the hot Texas sun bakes your home the attic temperature rises and the heat starts to saturate 
your insulation. By 1 – 2 o’clock in the afternoon your insulation is completely saturated along with the wood substructure of your home and it last until later in the evening. Have you ever wondered why your A/C is still cycling at 10-11 o’clock at night? Your home is still full of the heat that accumulated during the day. City codes require at least an R-30 in the attic ceilings and Energy Star suggests R-38 which is between 10 – 14 inches.
Radiant Heat: On a sunny summer day, solar energy is absorbed by the roof, heating the roof sheathing and causing the underside of the sheathing and the roof framing to radiate heat downward toward the attic floor. When a radiant barrier is placed on the underside of the roof deck or attic floor, much of the heat radiated from the hot roof is reflected back toward the roof. This makes the top surface of the insulation cooler than it would have been without a radiant barrier and thus reduces the amount of heat that moves through the insulation into the rooms below the ceiling.
Combine an energy efficient attic along with energy efficient windows and doors, and your electric company will think your meter broke.
If you are still paying TXU you’re paying too much. Save like tens of thousands of people have in Texas. www.Getignited.biz
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