Assessing if Your Home Needs More Insulation Is a Smart Move for Fall

As the temperatures in South Florida transition from hot and humid to cool and breezy, it’s time to prepare your home for the fall. Adding more insulation can benefit your home but it’s important to first assess whether this is necessary.

Insulation Assessment

There are some key factors to investigate when assessing whether your home requires more insulation for cooler seasons. If last year’s heating bills were uncomfortably high, or you notice drafts in rooms, uneven temperatures in different areas of the home, and cold walls and ceilings, it’s likely you need more insulation.

Benefits of Adding Insulation

Installing additional insulation can be difficult to do by yourself, so don’t be afraid to enlist the help of an experienced contractor. An ideal time to add insulation to what’s already there is during a major home renovation project when walls and other hard-to-reach areas are exposed. When you add insulation to your attic, it helps maintain a consistent comfort level in your home, by slowing down the transfer of heat energy between outside and inside. Air sealing the attic at the same time you add insulation ensures you get the most out of the insulation project.

Types of Insulation

There are two main types of insulation available for installation in the attic of your home – loose fill and batt insulation. It’s perfectly viable to add loose fill on top of existing fiberglass blankets or batts, and vice versa. When using fiberglass batt over loose fill, make sure that the batt doesn’t have a foil backing. Loose fill insulation uses a blower, and its installation is challenging enough where you should consider hiring a professional. Installing more insulation in the form of fiberglass batt rolls is an easier job to do yourself. Make sure you don’t lay it directly on top of lighting fixtures, as the lights can become hot and create a fire hazard. To ensure the function and safety of lights and vents, create barriers with wire mesh or sheet metal around them.

When you’re ready to add more insulation and improve the efficiency of your Florida home, please contact our experienced professionals at NisAir Air Conditioning and Heating. We’ve served Martin, Palm Beach and Indian River counties since 1973.