Attic Insulation

Attic Insulation: Simple Changes That Can Make a Big Difference in Your Energy Bill

Sprucing up your attic can make a big difference in your bottom line. Here are four ways to make your attic more energy efficient during 2019:

1. Install Energy-Efficient Attic Vents

Maintaining adequate air circulation can help you keep an even, steady temperature throughout your house all year long.

During the warmer summer months, hot air rises up into your attic. If it can’t escape, the entire top end of your home begins to warm.

All that hot, trapped air starts to produce moisture, and it can even damage your roof’s shingles from below. Proper ventilation allows hot air to escape.

The same thing happens in the winter months. As you heat your home, the hot air rises into the attic. Not only is moisture a concern but you also run the risk of melting the ice and snow on the roof above. That might sound like a good thing, but much of that melted snow will end up in your gutters, where it can refreeze and cause major damage.

By installing energy-efficient attic vents, you can reduce your overall home cooling costs. But it’s important to make sure your vents are installed in such a way that they never pull your home’s conditioned air up into the attic (because that just makes your HVAC work harder, increasing your home energy costs and defeating the whole purpose). An energy efficiency professional can help.

2. Install an Attic Fan

Don’t confuse an attic fan with a whole-house fan. The latter may be located in your attic, but it’s designed to cool the whole house (thus the name). An energy-efficient attic fan, meanwhile, has just one job: cooling the attic itself.

But here’s where those names get tricky: even though the attic fan doesn’t cool the whole house, it can regulate the temperature throughout your home. So you might say it has a “whole-house” benefit.

Just as importantly, an attic fan protects your attic from moisture damage (and your roof from hot-air damage).

Essentially, an energy-efficient attic fan builds on the benefits of an attic vent, as outlined in Tip #1 above.

A word of warning, though: installing an attic fan may be one of the best ways to make your attic more energy efficient, but you have to do it right. Don’t install an attic fan until you’ve ensured the entire attic is properly insulated and sealed. This brings us to Tip #3…

3. Ensure Cracks Are Sealed

An airtight attic is essential to keeping your energy bills low. Any cracks, breaks, holes, or weak spots will allow air to leak through — and water, too.

Anytime air escapes from your air-conditioned interior to the attic space above, that’s wasted energy. You are needlessly pumping cool air into the attic, overworking your HVAC and running up your bills.

A home energy audit can help you identify attic leaks and ensure any cracks are sealed.

BONUS: Upgrade Your Insulation

Of all the ways to make your attic more energy efficient, upgrading your home insulation might be the very best.

There are a number of energy-efficient insulation materials on the market today. Choosing the right one can drive your monthly energy costs down dramatically. In fact, the U.S. Department of Energy says that, depending on how good your current insulation is, upgrading your attic insulation could cut your monthly energy costs by up to 50%!

Learn more about upgrading to energy-efficient insulation in your attic.

Schedule a Home Energy Audit in Denver or Fort Collins, CO

At REenergizeCO, we offer easy and affordable solutions for leaky, energy-inefficient attics.

A good first step is simply to schedule a home energy audit with our team of experts. We can determine where and how your home is losing energy, and we’ll identify the most cost-effective ways to make your attic more energy efficient — and the whole house, too.

Learn more about a home energy audit in Denver, CO and contact our office to schedule yours today.