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.

The cooler weather is here, and there are plenty of ways to decrease your home heating bills. Obviously, doing a home energy audit is a perfect place to start. But better insulating your home is a great place to start.

You need insulation in your home to provide resistance to heat flow. The more heat flow resistance your insulation provides, the lower your heating and cooling costs.

Ducts that move air to and from a forced air furnace, central air conditioner, or heat pump can waste energy. Sealing and insulating these ducts can improve the efficiency of your heating and cooling system by as much as 20%. Start with the attic, basement, and garage. These are areas where your ducts are often not insulated. By insulating your air ducts you can maintain the  temperature of the air flowing through them and into your home.

One of the most basic ways to make your home more energy efficient is by adding insulation. Energy typically escapes through a house's top floor or attic, so add more insulation there to save.

Contact Custom Insulation to improve the existing insulation in your home.

There are many ways to increase your home’s efficiency for the upcoming winter. Properly insulated homes have significantly lower heating and cooling bills. However, often homeowners do not think of insulation when looking for ways to lower their heating costs.

Your attic may be insulated, but check out your attic access way. In the form of a hatch, pull-down stairs, or a knee-wall door, attic accesses often go uninsulated. This gap in the attic insulation increases heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer.

Also, attic accesses often aren't sealed properly. A 1/4-inch gap around the perimeter of an attic access can leak the same amount of air supplied by a typical bedroom heating duct.

Knee walls are often found in houses with finished attics, they are vertical walls with attic space directly behind them. These walls are usually leaky and often uninsulated. A knee wall and the attic floor in the attic space behind it should be properly insulated and air sealed.

Properly insulating air ducts located in unconditioned spaces such as attics, crawl spaces, garages, or unfinished basements can also help improve your home's energy efficiency.

Air ducts supply conditioned air from your space heating and cooling equipment to your living spaces. They also return an equal volume of air back to the equipment to be conditioned again. Ducts are typically made out of thin metal materials that easily conduct heat. Therefore, uninsulated or poorly insulated ducts in unconditioned spaces can lose 10%–30% of the energy used to heat and cool your home.

If you properly insulate your crawl space—in addition to air sealing and controlling moisture, you will save on energy costs and increase your home's comfort.

Contact Custom Insulation for more information on making your home more energy efficient.

Alternative heat is a great option for your home. Either supplementing the existing heating system or entirely heating your home with a wood or pellet burning stove, fireplace or insert can enable you to really cut down on your utility bills.

There's a reason why a large number of Massachusetts homeowners are wood stove loyalists. Wood stoves are timeless in their appeal, they provide efficient heating and they have a unique style.

The selection of Lennox Wood burning stoves from Custom Insulation offer distinctive sizes and designs that combine superior craftsmanship and cutting-edge technology.

Regardless of your décor or your heating needs there is a Lennox fireplace that will fit your home perfectly. From gas- and wood-burning to pellet fireplaces, you have many choices.

If your home has an existing masonry or metal fireplace, there are easy and attractive ways to spark new life into it. Pellet burning fireplace inserts fit into almost any traditional fireplace opening to instantly transform your room into a warm and entertaining space.

We are insulation specialists. We can ensure, when we install your stove, insert or fireplace that your chimney is draft free, and that you won’t be losing valuable heat through the chimney. Who better to install your new stove, fireplace or insert than Custom Insulation Co?

We know, it’s July. But it is never too late to start thinking about how you are heating your home this coming winter. If you were one of the many in Massachusetts that got hit with larger than expected heating bills last winter, you should think about an alternative heating option for your home.

Regardless of your décor or your heating needs there is a Lennox fireplace that will fit your home perfectly. With gas- and wood-burning fireplaces, you have a long list of choices. One of our favorites is the Montebello.  This fireplace combines the elegance of a clean-face design with grand proportions and dramatic fires and puts out up to 60,000 BTUs.

There's a reason why a large number of homeowners are stove loyalists – they are timeless in their appeal and provide efficient heating and a unique style. The large selection of Lennox stoves offer distinctive sizes and designs that combine superior craftsmanship and cutting-edge technology.

Contact Custom Insulation today to find out more about cutting your heating bills this winter.

As the days get warmer you might start dreaming of air conditioning. But, there are some other ways to keep your house more comfortable during hot summer days that are easier on your wallet and the environment.

Attics can reach temperatures over 140 degrees F on hot summer days. If there isn’t much insulation between the ceiling and attic a lot of this heat is going to be transferred into the house.  Increasing attic insulation can make a big difference in the comfort level of a home and will also cut your heating costs in the winter. By adding R40 insulation to a poorly insulated attic the temperature inside the house will drop by 6-8 º F on hot days.

Proper attic ventilation is also important in keeping your house cool and extending the life of your roof. Without it, as the sun goes down your attic won’t cool off as much and will continue to heat your house throughout the night.

The use of spray foam insulation has been rapidly growing as Architects, Builders and Homeowners become aware of the long term energy savings and comfort benefits associated with using spray foam. However, if you have a walk up attic, blanket insulation would be fine to use.