Attic Foil

Foil Insulation - Does It Really Work?

This Question:

This Question is really NOT does radiant barrier work? It's a proven technology -YES it works. NASA uses it, Frito-Lay uses it in their chip bags anyone who has a sunshield for their car windshield knows that radiant barrier foil insulation works to reflect heat. The real question is HOW MUCH CAN I SAVE and IS IT WORTH the investment? I will be the first to admit if you search the internet or go to one of the "dinner presentation" that the benefits of radiant barrier are often way oversold.

My customers are mostly do-it-yourselfers who spend a couple hundred dollars to save money and to make their home more comfortable. For them it is a great return on their investment and time. When it comes to radiant professional installers, they fall into two groups. The biggest group which do not oversell it and charge "Reasonable" rates for installation. Then there are some guys who try to SCAM people by promising unrealistic savings and charging very high prices. It's ashamed because they give radiant barrier a bad reputation. Yes, when they install radiant barrier foil (I sell to some of them) it works great. But, overselling the benefits and creating false expectations should be discouraged.

As Far As Saving,

let me illustrate two different homes and the related savings: I've stated you can expect realistic savings of 5%-20% with SOME homes getting 30% or more. Another item is "Comfort". By reducing the radiant heat gain, your home will be more comfortable and it will FEEL cooler. Often, customers will raise their thermostats a couple of degrees to keep from getting too cool.

Remember - Radiant Barrier installed in an attic will ONLY reduce the heat entering from the ROOF

The basic rule is that the more roof you have the more your potential savings.

House #1

One Story Home 2000 square ft. "ranch style" home. If the house is 50' x 40' with 8' ceilings it has 16,000 cubic feet of space, 1440 square ft of WALL SURFACE and 2000 square ft of ROOF SURFACE.

So the roof area (2000ft) divided by the total surface area of the home (3440ft) is 58% of the total "envelope". Because the roof represents such a high percentage of the thermal envelope it can have a very large impact on savings. In fact, I've got customers who have reduced their Summer bills OVER 30% on very large one-story homes. As a one-story home gets larger, the percentage of roof to wall ratio increases. Some homes, (<4000 ft) can have the roof/ceiling represent over 75% of the thermal envelop

House #2:

Two Story Home with 2000 square ft. "double layer cake style" home. If the house is 40' x 25' and 8' ceilings plus 2' between floors (total 18' tall) you have a total of 18,000 cubic ft. The WALL SURFACE area is 2340 square and the ROOF SURFACE area is 1000 square ft. Once again, take the roof area (1000ft) divided by the total surface of the home (3340ft) and the percentage the roof represents is only 29% of the total envelope.

Installing Radiant Barrier in a home like this will still be beneficial. However, the PERCENTAGE of savings will be significantly less compared to the PERCENTAGE on the one-story Ranch Style home. But, remember the COST will only be half compared to the 2000 ft. home since you are only using 1000 ft of foil.

Hopefully,

Hopefully, this helps to explain why the percentage savings on the bills can vary greatly. Without going through and doing a complete heat load analysis it is difficult to really project the savings. Just remember, the more roof, the more POTENTIAL for savings. I'd still install it on a two story home with a small attic. It WILL reduce heat gain into the home which is very good. But, I would also try to plant trees to provide shade to the East/West walls too.

Foil Installation

Foil Insulation should be part of an overall strategy to make your home more comfortable and energy efficient. For most homes you should:

I've got thousands of customers who have installed AtticFoil themselves. And, a great number of my new customers are referrals from existing customers. Radiant Barrier DOES work. Just be realistic in your expectations and don't believe anyone that can "guarantee" savings of 30-50%.