Custom Insulation Blog

Making your home perfectly energy efficient can be challenging unless you’re building a custom home right now. Your best bet to energy efficiency now is tightening up the building’s envelope: caulking and weather stripping, more insulation, and better windows and doors.

Plugging air leaks and topping up insulation can save over $400 a year, according to energy provider Direct Energy. Upgrading insulation in a 1,200-square-foot attic saves enough money in energy savings to make up for the cost of the project.

For insulation, anything less than R12 in the walls and basement, R20 for exposed floors and cathedral ceilings and R40 in the attic should be upgraded. Going from R10 to R20 gives you the biggest boost: it’s the first few inches that are most important.

Adding rigid Styrofoam to the outside walls can bridge thermal gaps, which are heat leaks where the fiberglass insulation stops at the studs, although you may need to remove the exterior siding to do so.

For free quote for replacing insulation in your home, contact Custom Insulation.

Homeowners spend millions each year caulking, replacing windows & doors, and weather stripping to make their home more energy efficient. But, one of the biggest culprits of energy loss is the chimney.

When you have a fire in your fireplace, the chimney works great. It acts as a funnel and takes smoke and dangerous gasses away.

But, your chimneys work even when there is no fire. This is the easiest escape route for the warm air in your home. You can tell that air is escaping through your chimney if your chimney has cold air in it or if you feel powerful drafts from very small gaps in your windows or doors.

Cold air can't get in unless it is going out at the same speed.

How do you stop this?

1. Install a wood burning or pellet stove or fireplace insert. By installing a wood or pellet stove or insert you not only cut down on your energy bill by stopping the warm air from going up the chimney, but you also cut down on your energy bill in using  the new stove. Wood and pellet heat is a far more economical way to heat your home than oil, electricity or gas.
2. Insulate your chimney. By insulating your chimney you eliminate drafts. Stop the warm air from escaping the hole in your roof, and stop the cold air from coming in through other avenues when the air is no longer leaving your home. Boarding up your chimney makes your fireplace and eye sore, insulating your chimney is easy and efficient, and you fireplace still can look beautiful.