Reflective Insulation and Radiant Heat Barrier

The Quick, Easy Guide to Understanding HEAT GAIN into Your Home

Overview - Your home is simply a BOX that holds cold air. It's basically like a refrigerator. You want to keep the cold in, the hot out and do it for the least amount of money. This is energy savings.

Now, Air Conditioning is simply THE REMOVAL OF HEAT. Nothing more, nothing less. The hot air you feel blowing out of your condensing unit (outdoor a/c unit) is actually heat that is being sucked out of your home. The bigger the unit (more tonnage) the more heat it can suck out per hour. Did you know that COLD CANNOT BE MEASURED? There is actually no such thing as "Cold". We use the term "cold" to describe the lack of heat. What's the difference between your home air conditioner and your freezer? Nothing really except more heat has been pulled out of the freezer. Temperature is actually a measure of how much heat an object contains.

New Construction

We are doing everything possible to reduce the TOTAL HEAT LOAD of the home. If you can cut the amount of heat in half that is getting in, then it makes sense that you can cut the COOLING part of your electric bill (not total bill) by half. We are now using NON-VENTED sealed attics using spray foam insulation or SIP panels. Ductwork that is pressure tested to eliminate duct leakage and good window and home orientation to reduce East/West direct sun exposure. Or, to combat the Texas heat, many home builders are using a foil insulation product called techshield plywood. It has a low emissivity and reflects the heat while still using attic ventilation to move the heat out of the attic either through continious ridge vent or ventilation turbines. Using attic ventilation fans can be effective when combined with good soffit vents. Also, aluminium foil roof insulation will make your fiberglass insulation and ductwork insulation more effective by reducing the radiant energy entering the home and ducts.

Heat Gain (or the heat load)

The Heat load or gain is how much heat is entering your BOX or home. The Air conditioner will suck the heat out. Pretty simple when you think about it. The larger your heat load, then you need larger (and more expensive to operate) air conditioning equipment to pull more heat out.

So, in order to reduce your electric bill you can approach it one of two ways. 1) Reduce the cost to remove the heat. This means buying a more efficient air conditioner. Or 2) REDUCE the amount of heat coming into the home. This makes perfect sense. The only difference between March and July is that in the hot Summer more heat is getting in and you have to spend more money to get it out.

The FIRST Option, would be to have giant oak trees covering the home right? This would reduce the amount of heat gain, and of course means less heat to remove. GET IT? Lower Bills!!

This is RADIANT BARRIER

Email with any questions- email or Call 214-707-8600