If you’re a Martinez, Georgia, homeowner who cares about heating and cooling costs, you should be vigilant about keeping your home properly insulated. However, because there can be so many problem areas when it comes to insulating your home, preventing heat loss can often feel like an uphill battle, especially if you’re not sure what to do. Here are some solutions to insulation problems that are common in major parts of your home.
Check Your Attic
Though many parts of a house may be poorly insulated, the attic is usually the most common culprit of heat loss. Because hot air rises, warm air will naturally make its way toward the attic. If this space isn’t properly insulated, the heat escapes, causing you to pay much more for energy bills than you have to.
According to several estimates, around 25 percent of the heat that homes lose during the coolest months escapes through their attics. If you want to lower your energy bills, you should try to reduce this percentage. Fortunately, you have several ways to insulate your attic and control your energy costs.
While you could choose a traditional option such as blown-in insulation, installing an attic tent insulator is an additional effective solution. An attic tent limits the airflow between the entrance to your attic and the rest of your home. By creating an airtight barrier between your attic and other parts of your house, it keeps warm air in your home and, thus, saves you money.
Cracks in Your Home
Gaps between your windows and doors and cracks in your walls can create troublesome spots where heat can escape. Even a tiny gap between the bottom of your door and your floor can let a tremendous amount of warm air escape and cause your monthly energy bills to skyrocket.
If you’ve noticed that your energy bills have been creeping upwards, look around your house for these gaps and cracks. If you find them around your doors, walls, or windows, you can respond in several ways.
Cracks around your home can be easily sealed with caulk, and adding weather stripping to your doors and windows will help minimize heat loss. If you want to prevent heat loss as much as possible, you should have a home heating expert come to your house and look for poorly insulated areas. They will tell you about the best ways to fix these problems.
Don’t Forget the Basement
It is easy to overlook your basement when you’re insulating your home. However, it’s important that you don’t forget about it because heat can easily escape from this part of your home.
Most of the heat that your basement loses escapes through the walls. Adding more insulation to your basement walls will allow you to mitigate heat loss and help you control your energy costs. If your home has an unfinished cement basement, finishing the room will make it more insulated and help you keep warm air in your house.
Signs of Poor Insulation
If you suspect that your home isn’t adequately insulated, you can do a few things to confirm your suspicions. First, check your home’s temperature regularly. If you find that the temperature of your home does not stay consistent and changes frequently, your house may be poorly insulated.
You can also compare your past energy bills to your current bills. If your energy costs have been steadily increasing over the past few years, you should think about updating the insulation in your home. You can also check for poor insulation by using the touch test. Touch the interior floors and walls to feel their moisture level and temperature. Ideally, the walls in your home should be dry and warm. If you find they are cool or damp, you should consider adding more insulation.
Fix Poor Insulation
If you want to make your home more comfortable and lower your energy bills, call 706-426-9262 to schedule an appointment with Doc Savage Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc. We serve homeowners in Martinez, Georgia, and the surrounding area, and we would be glad to help you improve your home’s insulation.
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