How Attic Ventilation Can Help During Arizona’s Summer

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Most people don’t give much thought to their attics and how they are connected to the energy efficiency of their homes. Aside from a place to stow away items, attics are rarely used. A poorly insulated and maintained attic can actually increase your energy bills and bring mold and mildew into your home. This is why evaluating your attic and making sure that you have a good ventilation system and proper insulation is so important.

How Poor Ventilation Hurts Your Home

Hot air and moisture often enter your home through your attic. A poorly ventilated attic will not allow enough of this heat to escape, forcing it into the rest of your home. The result is an extra drain on your air conditioning unit, which will work overtime to keep your home cool. In some instances, the air conditioning system is unable to keep up on days that are excessively hot.

If you have a poorly ventilated attic, you may be unable to expel unwanted moisture as well. Mold and mildew need moisture to survive and reproduce. If you trap moisture in your home inadvertently, you are also inviting these hazards into the rest of your home.

The way to address these problems is to make sure that you have vents in the attic that create airflow. This draws heat out of your attic rather than allowing it to move through your home. Making sure that you have proper insulation is also an important step toward protecting your home and lowering your energy bills.

How Insulation Can Lower Your Energy Bill

Insulation doesn’t just keep heat or cold from escaping your home. It also prevents it from entering, reducing the workload of your HVAC system. When your air conditioning isn’t required to work as hard or as long, it can drastically reduce your electricity bill. Insulating your attic will also help maintain your home’s temperature so that your air conditioner is not required to turn itself on as frequently.

Making your home as energy efficient as possible won’t merely reduce your energy bills. It will also help reduce your carbon footprint by reducing the amount of energy required to maintain a cool home. For many, the environmental benefit is enough alone to spur them to make improvements.

Only professional insulation services are equipped to determine whether you have the insulation and ventilation you need to maintain optimum energy efficiency. Many people attempt to address these problems on their own, but find that they are unable to achieve the desired result. It can be more expensive and time-consuming to do it yourself, and you are better off entrusting this to the professionals.

Have Your Home Evaluated for Free

King Insulation has served the Phoenix area for 30 years. We will help you find the most affordable, effective, and energy-efficient solution for your home. During a free home audit, we can let you know how effective your current ventilation and insulation is and then discuss products and materials that fit your unique needs. Give us a call at 602-272-9297 or fill out our online form to learn more.

What You Need to Know About Your Commercial Building Insulation

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Insulation refers to any material used to fill the spaces between our home, its walls, and the outdoor elements for the purposes of controlling sound, electricity, or temperature.  Insulation is often used to fill the cracks, gaps, crevices, and hardest-to-reach locations within a home’s structure, often to prevent energy loss.

Available in a variety of different materials, insulation can manifest in forms including electrical insulation, thermal insulation, and even soundproofing insulation.

Insulation Choices For Commercial Buildings

Commercial property owners have a wide selection of potential insulation solutions available to them. Working with a professional team of insulation installers will help to see which of the following options match your property the best.

  • Fiberglass Board — A rigid form of fiberglass board, this insulation is often turned to in order to insulate areas surrounding our HVAC systems. Board insulation helps to keep ducting from leaking heat or cool air during its operation, saving property owners on their energy bills while keeping their buildings in comfortable shape.
  • Rock Wool — Also known as mineral wool, rock wool insulation is crafted from a high-density material. Commonly used to insulate piping, this insulation choice is resistant against high-temperatures and is useful around appliances.  As an aside, hydroponic gardeners use rock wool for their plants!
  • Loose-fill Insulation — Typically crafted from some composite fiberglass and cellulose pellets, this insulation is applied through a spray to cover wall cavities, areas beneath floors, and other hard-to-cover sections of the property. This is an ideal solution for quirky areas of a building that won’t cater to conventional insulation choices.
  • Spray Foam — Finally, spray foam is an ideal solution for smaller cracks, gaps, and crannies. Applied through a semi-liquid state, this is easy insulation to use because it is dense, lightweight, and quick-to-dry for optimum insulation abilities.

Key Benefits of Using Commercial Insulation

Insulation is meant to provide our building with the protection and insulation they require to operate around-the-calendar. A simple concept yet easy to misunderstand, here are the key advantages that are provided through proper commercial insulation solutions.

Cut Down on Energy Expenses — In today’s era of analytics and efficiency, it seems almost wrong to not optimize our building against energy loss. With rising energy costs highlighted by natural disasters, reducing our energy expenditure can be a great way to save money, reduce our carbon footprint, and help our business along the way.

Decrease HVAC Wear-and-Tear — While the average modern HVAC system can live for upwards of 20 years with proper maintenance, we can still do better to provide for their longevity. An HVAC system without the benefit of proper insulation will be forced to work overtime to provide the same level of comfort in a non-insulated building.

Optimized Indoor Comfort — Finally, your employees and your clients deserve to work in and operate from a position of comfort. A properly insulated commercial building will be more comfortable in the summer, spring, fall, and winter!

Call King Insulation For Commercial Insulation Solutions!

King Insulation has been a premier provider of energy-saving insulation solutions since it first opened its doors in 1981. Happily serving the good folks of Arizona with sound and thermal insulation applications for residential, industrial, and commercial properties, there is no team more uniquely suited to solve your insulation needs!

Whether clients are working on a small business addition, or they require insulation for an entire commercial warehouse, lead-safe and EPA-certified solutions are just a call and quote away from your friends at King Insulation.

Why It’s Important to Insulate Your Commercial Building!

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As we continue to grow our understanding of energy efficiency, building codes are going to correspondingly rise in response. As energy efficiency becomes even more of a hot-button topic thanks to the rise of green energy advancements, we’ll see more and more people looking to improve the insulation of their commercial buildings.

Today, we want to highlight the importance of properly insulating our commercial properties against the coming seasons. We’ll outline four key advantages that proper commercial insulation services can provide. By the end of our conversation, you’ll be ready to contact the winning team of insulation installers at King Insulation.

Key Advantages to Proper Commercial Building Insulation

When discussing building code and energy efficiency standards, we are really only outlining the legal minimum mandated by the local government. This means that there is a lot of room to improve between baseline code and exceptional energy efficiency. When working with a commercial insulation team such as King Insulation, consumers can expect to experience the following advantages when they install energy-efficient commercial insulation.

1. Reduce Energy Bills by Maximizing Energy Efficiency — Reducing energy expenses will often be one of the leading reasons to consider an energy-efficient insulation installation. Energy efficiency is incredibly important for several reasons. Not only will we reduce power plant CO2 emissions, but our businesses can land public accolades for energy efficiency. With energy scores rated and publicly released, energy efficiency can become a selling point for your business.

2.  Create a Comfortable Environment — Whether we are working in traditional retail or larger-than-life commercial warehousing, our employees and customers require a safe and comfortable environment to operate within. Here in Arizona, temperatures can go sky-high or basement low depending on the season. Properly installed commercial insulation can prevent cold air from leaking out into a warm environment or it can protect warm air from getting pulled out of the walls.

3. Boost Acoustic Performance of Building — Have you ever stepped foot into a room that was too large to properly decorate? If so, you’ve no doubt heard the uncomfortable acoustics that improperly fitted rooms can provide. Creating a positive acoustic impact through insulation is just one of the many positive side-benefits that come with the service. The acoustic design will vary based upon building location and occupancy, so work with your team at King Insulation to perfect your acoustic solutions.

4. Improved Sustainability and Environmental Responsibility — According to a report published on sustainable companies, the United States of America houses 17 of the top 100 businesses. As corporate ethics and improved sustainability continue to gain footing at the center of public discourse, it can’t hurt to prepare our companies to compete. Promoting sustainability and responsibility isn’t just good for your company’s image, it is great for the Earth.

Contact Kings Insulation For Eco-Friendly Insulation Solutions

When the time comes to update our commercial businesses with professional insulation, we know to turn to the team at King Insulation. A full-service provider for energy saving solutions since 1981, King Insulation is proud to serve Arizona with the services they need to succeed.

 

The Importance of Insulating Your Home: 3 Key Benefits For Modern Property Owners

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We are increasingly becoming creatures of comfort thanks in large part to the convenience of modern technology. From indoor plumbing to electricity and everything in between, it is easy to see why we call the home we live in our very Kingdom! With that being said, our comfort is reliant upon properly insulating our home.

The insulation within a home typically must meet only the legal minimum, coming to terms with the building codes for the locality that the home is located. With that being said, focusing on premium insulation can be a great way to boost the value of your property, the comfort of your home, and the odds that you will be able to sell the building in the future.

Home Insulation Benefits: Advantages and Best Practices

When we talk about insulation, we must discuss the process by which it works. There are three core mechanisms involved with your insulation and those are conduction, radiation, and convection. Conduction describes how heat moves through insulation while convention focuses on gases and liquids. Finally, radiant heat describes how heat travels in a direct line, leaving warmth in its path while absorbing energy.

There are numerous insulation materials to choose from, each of which will provide its own key advantages and benefits. Among the most common forms of building insulation are fiberglass, mineral wool, cellulose, and polystyrene. No matter what type of insulation we ultimately end up working with, it must be understood that nearly 70% of our energy expenses are related to heating and cooling.

The installation of proper insulation materials can lead to profound benefits for homeowners today, tomorrow, and for years to come. Let’s highlight three core advantages that every homeowner must consider when installing insulation.

  1. Take Control of Your Energy Bills – Did you know that residential electricity prices jumped by nearly 34% between 2005 and 2015? It’s true! Accelerating energy costs have made it increasingly important to have new insulation professionally installed. Properly installed insulation can significantly reduce energy expenditures, CO2 emissions, and our overall carbon footprint. Don’t just meet energy conservation minimums, exceed them!
  2. Reduce Exposure to Toxins – Did you know that the installation of new insulation can lead to reduced exposure to toxic chemicals, volatile organic compounds, and even mold?  If you are building a new home or looking to renovate an existing one, consider hiring an insulation team to install new fiberglass insulation. In doing so, we can avoid toxic chemicals commonly found in older insulation such as cellulose. Mineral wool is another great option for non-toxic insulation.
  3. Meet New Energy Standards – In today’s environmentally focused world, it has become increasingly important to reduce our carbon footprint while maximizing our energy efficiency. New insulation can help to meet the needs of homeowners everywhere, thus helping to ensure a quick and satisfactory sale.

Comfort You Can Count On With King Insulation

King Insulation has been serving up energy insulation solutions to residents throughout Arizona since 1981. With a focus on residential, industrial, and commercial properties, King Insulation can help every client keep their building properly insulated. King Insulation promises leading energy solutions for small homes, large stores, and warehouses with millions of sq/ft to cover.

Contact the team at King Insulation to schedule an estimate and consultation!

 

Improve Your Energy Efficiency This Winter!

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With winter right around the corner, it’s time to think about keeping your home warm for yourself and your family. And there are ways you all can stay nice and toasty while keeping your energy costs down. Getting your home ready for the colder weather is a lot easier than you think. There are many ways to winterize your home to stay cozy for comfort and energy savings.

Get a Heating System Inspection and Tune-Up

Getting a heating system inspection and tune-up are both part of proper maintenance for your home’s heating system. During both, gas burners and heating elements are assessed. Your gas furnace’s heat exchanger will be inspected also. This can help prevent dangerous carbon monoxide. The blower motor and electrical components of the heating system will also be inspected. A heating system and tune-up will keep it running more efficiently. The heating system won’t have to work so hard to warm your home. This equates to keeping more money in your pocket.

Close All of the Vents

While it’s okay to keep the homes’ vents open during the spring and summer, they should be closed during the winter months. This includes closing all of the foundation vents, too. Doing this will keep the warmer air inside the home. As soon as the winter rolls in, close all of the vents in your home.

Do an Inspection of the Attic and Insulation

Attics are well known to lose heat in the home as it rises. Your attic needs to well-insulated to prevent the warm air from escaping your home through the attic. If your attic isn’t insulated properly, you’re just going to wind up losing energy efficiency. Don’t skimp on having your attic insulated. Just do it. An attic’s insulation plays a major role in keeping your home both warm and energy-efficient during the wintertime. And don’t forget about other areas of the home, too. Walls and crawl spaces also need to be properly insulated.

Seal Up Windows and Doors

Improperly fitted doors and windows just let the warm air in your home escape. They need to be properly sealed and in good condition. If they are not, there’s a big compromise in your home’s energy efficiency. Your heating system will just have to use more energy to replace the escaped warm air with more warm air. Use weather stripping and caulking to seal up all leaks from windows and doors. Even if you have to pay to get it done; it’s worth it in the long run.

Upgrade Your Existing Heating System

It just may be worth investing in a new heating system to keep your home warm and energy-efficient in the winter, especially if your system is over 10 years old. Manufacturers keep upgrading and improving the energy efficiency of their heating system. Look for one that is Energy Star Certified.

 

How to Find the Best Insulation for Your Attic in Arizona

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An Introduction to Attic Insulation for Arizona Homeowners

Between the chilly desert nights and the searing daytime sunshine, Arizona homes face some formidable thermal control issues. If you’re having trouble keeping your home comfortable without spiking your utility bill, you may need to add insulation to your attic. The good news is that modern construction technologies give you more insulation options than you ever knew existed; the bad news is that all those options can cause understandable puzzlement. Here are some key considerations to help you select the most effective insulation for your Arizona attic.

Insulation Forms and Materials

Attic insulation can take any of numerous forms, the two most common of which are blown-in and batted insulation. Blown-in insulation makes use of a blower that fires chunks of spun material into tight spaces. However, it can also cover large areas, potentially making it the only form of insulation your attic needs. In batted insulation, panels of insulating cloth called batts can cover large, precise areas on attic walls. This form is often supplemented with blown-in insulation sprayed into the smaller or more awkward areas. Spray foam can also be blown into tiny cracks and crevices, boosting energy efficiency. In yet another kind of insulation called radiant barrier insulation, panels of reflective material bounce thermal energy away from the attic interior.

Both batted insulation and blown-in insulation may consist of materials such as cotton, cellulose, and fiberglass. Of these materials, fiberglass is often the preferred choice for its ability to cover areas evenly and without settling. Spray foam insulation is made of polyurethane plastic. Radiant barrier insulation features an outer sheet of metallic foil glued to a backing board.

The Question of R-Value

In addition to choosing the right kind of insulation for your attic, you must also consider how much R-value you need to add to whatever you’ve currently got. R-value is an industry standard measure for a material’s thermal resistance. Recommendations are generally based on the regional climate zone. The Phoenix area sits within Zone 2. For Zone 2 homes, an attic with no insulation should receive insulation with a total R-value between 30 and 60. An attic with three to four inches of existing insulation should receive additional insulation with a R-value of 25 to 38.

When adding new insulation, some of your choices may be limited by the nature of the existing insulation — unless you decide to rip that insulation out entirely and start over. For instance, if your attic already has batted insulation, placing another layer of batting over it may leave air gaps between layers, affecting performance.

Now that you know a few of the factors involved in choosing attic insulation in Arizona, get the rest of the story from the experienced experts at King Insulation. We can tell you exactly how much insulation you need, point you toward the ideal products for your needs, and perform top-quality installations.

Autumn Home Maintenance: 3 Things EVERY Homeowner Must Do To Prepare For Winter!

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As the leaves begin to change and the smell of Autumn fills the air, savvy homeowners know that winter’s chill may not be far behind. Preparing for winter is part and parcel of a homeowner’s experience. Ensuring that your property has been shored against the coming winter can be a great way to keep your home comfortable while improving the year-round efficiency of your property.

According to a report published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the average household will spend nearly $700 on heating their home with natural gas this Winter.

Whether you live in a palatial mansion or you rent a small ranch home, you must ask yourself if your home is adequately prepared against the coming season. Of course, we are talking about much more than just putting up your favorite Christmas decorations. In fact, we have three simple tips that can help you prepare your home for the season in style.

Today, we are going to introduce you to THREE THINGS every homeowner must do to prepare for winter.

Autumn Preparedness Checklist: Three Steps to Housekeeping Success

1. Install or Improve Upon Your Home’s Insulation

The average home insulation installation can last for anywhere from 80 to 100 years if left undisturbed. Unfortunately, insulation rarely lasts this long and there are plenty of signs to look out for. Do you notice changing indoor temperatures in your home? Has your energy bill increased substantially in recent years? Do you feel drafts of wind coming from within your home?

Replacing your insulation is one of the fastest ways to shore your home against wonton energy waste. Properly installed insulation can help to prevent the exit-transfer of heat, thus keeping your home warm and cozy against the coming season.

Popular insulation choices include Fiberglass, Cellulose, and Spray Foam Insulation.

2. Replace Old Windows With Energy-Efficient Alternatives

Did you know that leaking windows are responsible for nearly 30% of heating/cooling energy use in the average household? It’s true! Before winter rolls into full view, use Autumn as a time to consider replacing all of your outdated or leaking windows. If you have single-pane windows, now might be a great time to consider an energy-efficient window makeover in your home.

For homeowners looking to boost their energy efficiency, consider installing Low-E Windows. Low-E Windows are coated with a special coating to block UV rays and light waves, thus protecting your home against heat during the summer. During the winter, your Low-E windows will keep your home warm by deterring drafts.

Another way to buy energy-efficient windows is to pay attention to ENERGY STAR labels.

3. Get Rid of Drafts Through Weatherstripping

According to the United States Department of Energy, weatherstripping can help homeowners to save up to 20% on heating and cooling bills. Weatherstripping is the act of sealing your home against drafts and leaks. Most commonly, gaps and leaks leading to drafts can be found near windows and doors and anywhere that your home’s caulking has begun to wear away.

To appropriately weatherstrip your home, make sure that you are working with the proper seals. Tension seals are ideal for hanging in windows while felt seals are great for beneath doors.  To calculate how much weatherstripping supplies you need, add the perimeters of ALL windows and doors, and then add 10% to adjust for potential waste.

King Insulation has been a full-service provider of insulation and energy-saving solutions since 1981. From massive warehouses and commercial buildings to single-family homes, no job is too big or too small for King Insulation. When it comes time to prepare your home for winter, make sure that you consult with the pros!

Why is it Smart to Have a Well-Insulated Home in Arizona?

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An Arizona Homeowner’s Guide to Insulation

If you lived in Arizona for any length of time, you know that the temperatures can get extremely hot in the southern part of the states and extremely cold in the northern part of the state. Instead of simply throwing more HVAC power at the problem, however, it pays to make a smarter investment by making sure you have the proper insulation installed in the most effective manner. Let’s take a look at the essentials of insulation for Arizona homes.

Why Good Insulation Is a Must

Arizona is notorious for extreme temperatures, especially on the top end of the thermometer. The average summer temperature in the state runs at 103 degrees Fahrenheit, with the average July temperature reaching 106 — and even higher temperatures commonly occur. If your home doesn’t have adequate insulation, it can very quickly become unmanageably, dangerously hot during extreme weather.

Investing in a beefed-up air conditioning system may cause more problems than it solves in such situations. For one thing, an air conditioner too large for its surroundings will tend to short cycle, turning on and off so rapidly that it never actually cools you off. To make matters worse, bigger air conditioners require more electricity, causing your utility bills to spike accordingly.

Properly installed insulation of the right thickness and thermal resistance (see below) can assume some of the burden in keeping your home comfortable. This benefit can lead to a reduction of 20 percent in your energy expenses.

Understanding R-Values and Insulation Types

An insulator’s thermal resistance is measured in terms of its R-value. The higher this number, the more effectively the material resists conductive heat flow. Homes in southern Arizona usually require insulation with an R-value between 30 and 38 to achieve optimal efficiency against the brutally hot weather seen in these parts, with higher R-values producing diminishing returns. By contrast, homes in Flagstaff or other northern Arizona cities may need R-values as high as 60 to combat the frigid winters they regularly see. Your insulation installer can help you determine whether you have the right degree of insulation for your needs.

Many kinds of insulation can provide effective R-values, especially since they come in a variety of thickness options. Urethane foam, cellulose, and mineral wool can all insulate attics and walls with great efficiency, whether you have it applied in solid batts or as a blown-in material that fills cracks and covers tricky surfaces. While none of these materials can claim to be totally flame-proof, they can all retard fire to varying degrees.

Find Out Exactly What You Need

The smartest starting point in your quest for insulation involves the scheduling of an energy audit. Qualified professionals can evaluate your home’s thermal performance in detail, figuring out exactly which parts of the house require extra help. Once you know what you need, you’re ready to enjoy a more comfortable, energy-efficient Arizona home!

AZ INSULATION | PHOENIX INSULATION SERVICES | SPRAY FOAM INSULATION PHOENIX

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In new home construction, King Insulation provides a complete thermal energy envelope in accordance with local building codes, Department of Energy recommendations, local utility company recommendations and customer preferences.
Additionally, King Insulation provides complete sound insulation for ceiling as well as all interior walls including bathrooms, laundry rooms, mechanical and equipment rooms, media and theater rooms.

Trust Your Local Certified Energy Expert®

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King Insulation is certified by Owens Corning Insulating Systems to provide customers with an outstanding combination of energy expertise and assurance. From products to personnel to performance, King Insulation and Owens Corning have taken the next step in all-around insulation satisfaction.