Your attic might not be the first place that comes to mind when you’re thinking about a healthy home, but it plays a bigger role than you may think. In fact, of the many places in your home to air seal and insulate, upgrading your attic insulation is one of the most effective ways to improve your home’s efficiency, health, and comfort.
At Healthy Home Energy & Consulting, we offer comprehensive attic insulation services throughout Westchester, Putnam, and surrounding counties. Here’s why our team of building science professionals will recommend attic insulation to improve your home.
How Your Home Benefits from Attic Insulation
When your attic is left under insulated, it jeopardizes your entire home and leaves it susceptible to moisture issues, indoor air quality pollutants, and more. Upgrading your attic insulation can solve these issues, along with providing several whole-home benefits.
Ice Dam Prevention
Do you get icicles on your gutters every winter? This is a red flag that points to attic heat loss. Without proper insulation, heat will escape from your attic and melt the snow on your roof. As the snowmelt reaches the eaves of your home’s roof it will refreeze, creating a blockage of ice that prevents any additional water from draining properly.
Ice dams are annoying, difficult to remove, and can even cause structural damage to your home’s building materials. Attic insulation is the most effective solution to stop ice dams from occurring at the source.
Improved Indoor Air Quality
It’s easy for pollutants, pests, and moisture to gain access into your home when your attic is under insulated. Additional contaminants can create a variety of indoor air quality issues, like mold growth, and pose a risk to your family. Attic insulation—especially when combined with air sealing—can help keep your home protected from the outside elements and the IAQ problems that come with them.
Consistent Home Comfort
Poor attic insulation can cause the temperature in your home to fluctuate, particularly on the second floor. If you’re comfortable in one room, warm in another, or have a stuffy upstairs, there’s a big chance your home could benefit from attic insulation.
A common building science principle known as the stack effect explains why it may be difficult to keep your home comfortable. In the winter, warm air will rise and get forced out of your home through gaps and cracks in your attic, while in the summer the process is reversed and cool air will be forced out through your crawlspace or basement. Upgrading your attic insulation can help slow the stack effect and keep you comfortable throughout every season of the year.
Optimized Energy Efficiency
Attics are a common area of energy loss in a home, making it an important area to insulate. By preventing heat transfer in and out of your living spaces, attic insulation can help lower your monthly utility costs. In addition to the energy savings, attic insulation can also help your HVAC system by reducing wear and tear, extending its lifespan, and optimizing its performance.
Old Attic Insulation? It Might Be Time for a Replacement
If your home already has attic insulation, but you’re still getting ice dams or moisture problems, there’s a chance that it will need to be replaced. Old attic insulation won’t be as effective as when it was first installed, but damaged or moldy attic insulation could cause indoor air quality issues to spread throughout your home.
The team at Healthy Home Energy & Consulting advises to get started with a Healthy Home Evaluation—our form of an energy audit. With this in-depth analysis of your home and attic, we’ll gain valuable insight into where your home is losing energy, and where insulation upgrades will be the most effective.
Make Your Home a Healthy Home With Our Team
Healthy Home Energy & Consulting is a full-service energy efficiency and attic insulation contractor servicing Westchester, Putnam, and southern Dutchess counties. Our team is certified by the Building Performance Institute (BPI), Home Performance with Energy Star®, and more. The qualifications equip us to find reliable and long-lasting solutions for your home’s comfort and health, all while lowering your energy bills.
Schedule a Healthy Home Evaluation today and find out how our team can help you. Call 914-242-9733 or contact us online to get started.
