To help keep the energy envelope of your Texas home sealed, consider your attic’s insulation. During the winter, insulation keeps warm air inside, but during the summer, its job is keeping hot air from entering a cool home.

Energy Efficiency

To understand the importance of insulation, think about the environment the exterior of the home is subjected to. When the summer months are in full swing, temperatures in Texas are blazing hot.

The first layer of protection to your home’s interior is the roof. There are many different roofing materials available such as asphalt shingles, metal roofing, clay and concrete tiles, slate, and rubber slate.

While roofing material serves as a barrier to protect the interior, it also absorbs heat produced by the sun. With an asphalt shingle roof, for example, the absorbed heat makes its way through roofing material and penetrates the underlayment beneath. The heat then travels through the wood decking and finally into the attic.

Once the air enters the attic the insulation should be able to stop it from infiltrating the rooms of your home underneath. However, this might not be possible if there is no insulation in place, an inadequate amount, or pockets of insufficient coverage.

Insulation that is old and deteriorated or damaged due to a leaking roof needs to be replaced, as it no longer provides optimum protection and can negatively impact energy efficiency. This also applies to insulation damaged by nesting wildlife.

HVAC Replacement and Repair

A potential downside to a lack of attic insulation is the stress exerted on the HVAC system. A system functioning normally cycles as it needs to adjust for a change in temperature. If it has cooled a well-insulated home, it won’t need to cycle as often.

Most often, regardless of how often the system cycles, missing or insufficient insulation will make it much harder to maintain a happy medium between hot and cold. Although cool air is continually blowing through the vents, it can’t offset the hot air filtering in through the attic.

When a home is not properly insulated, as the hot air seeps in from the attic, the system must work overtime to compensate. With hot air penetrating continuously, this means the system will continue to cycle on and off to keep the home cool. This results in unnecessary wear and tear on the system, which can result in damaging or breaking the system. A severely damaged system can lead to the necessity of buying a new HVAC system. This is a possibility when the HVAC is an older system and unable to handle the extra strain.

If a replacement of the system isn’t warranted, it can still lead to the need for HVAC repair. Either would result in unpleasant downtime without the comfort of a cool home while the the system is being fixed.

To decrease the strain on the HVAC system and still keep your home at a comfortable temperature, seal and insulate the attic. An annual maintenance check-up of your system is also recommended.

Lower Utility Bills

Whether you choose fiberglass, spray foam, cellulose, or foam board insulation, each provides the barrier necessary to support the energy envelope. Preventing the transference of heat is important during the winter months as well as the summer.

Whenever a home isn’t well insulated in the summer, energy efficiency goes out the window. This results in what can amount to a significant increase in the monthly utility bill. With proper installation and the appropriate amount of insulation for the square footage of the attic, energy costs will decrease.

Along with adequate attic insulation, consider adding insulation behind the drywall covering interior walls, if necessary. This prevents the seepage of outdoor hot air from entering through the home’s siding and raising the temperature level. Any other areas of the home that would benefit from installing insulation will add to your monthly energy savings and efficiency.

For information about attic insulation or to schedule an energy inspection of your home, contact Willard Heating and Air Conditioning at (972) 395-5139 for prompt service.

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