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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.