Want To Save Money And Make Your Home More Energy Efficient? A Bit About Attic Insulation Air Sealing

When your home is not as energy efficient as possible, you end up paying a lot more money on your heating and cooling bills. Up to 25 percent of the energy used to heat and cool your home can be lost through the attic. Even if you only have a crawl space up there, you are still losing a lot of air. In order to stop this from happening, you should consider attic insulation air sealing.

Should You Be Concerned About Your Energy Efficiency?

You may think that your home is well insulated and that you have nothing to worry about in regards to your energy efficiency. However, there are a few clues that indicate you do, in fact, have a problem:

• Temperature differences between rooms
• Drafts
• Dust in upstairs rooms or around the ceilings
• Dry air in the winter

You may not notice that your energy bills are high because they have always been this way. However, you will see lower bills when you seal the attic.

Attic Ventilation

While you may have good insulation in the attic, there are bound to be areas that allow the air to escape. If you have problems with the attic becoming too hot in the summer months, you probably have a ventilation fan in the roof. There will also be vents in the soffits to allow the air to flow and keep the attic from becoming too hot. The heat in the attic can warm the rest of the house as the heat moves from the floor of the attic to the ceiling in the rest of the house. To keep your attic ventilated while keeping the air from moving through the rest of the house, you should have the attic flooring sealed.

Other Problems

If you do not have a ventilation fan in the attic, you need to consider other small gaps or holes that need to be sealed. If you have a chimney or other exhaust pipe for your heating system, you will need to air seal around it. Holes or openings for any cables or wires for satellite, telephone, or other internet and television connections may be small, but they can be costing you higher energy bills. You also need to check the floor of the attic. There may be electrical boxes, pipes, or other holes in the flooring. Even if you have batting insulation there, the holes will still need to be sealed.

If you are not sure how energy efficient your attic is, contact an energy or insulation expert. They will come inspect the attic and tell you what needs to be air sealed. You can then choose to do the work yourself or pay the professional to do it. The money you save on the utility bills will more than make up for anything the work costs you.