You may have heard a lot about radiant barrier attic foil lately and how “amazing” it can be in reducing energy bills. I happen to be one of the leading manufacturers and suppliers of radiant barrier, and I m the first to extol the benefits you get from radiant barriers installed either by yourself or professional installers. Nevertheless, it s necessary to always keep in mind the old saying, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The key to realizing your potential savings is understanding the way in which radiant barriers functions and taking a realistic approach in your expectations.
First, what exactly does radiant barrier mean? Let s go back to the days when we were in 7th grade science class and recall that there are three ways in which heat can flow: 1) Conduction 2) Radiation 3) Convection. The principal two ways in which heat flows into a home are by conduction and radiation.
By conduction we mean flow of heat by physical contact. Heat instantly flows from the skillet you are holding in your hand. Heat is INVARIABLY transferred from a hot region to a cold one. In your home, conductive heat flows through its walls. (Cool inside, hot outside that means heat is coming in.)
Radiation is a kind of heat in waveform (like sound waves) that travels across a vacuum or an airspace. You can FEEL radiant heat without actually having to touch the heat source. Once more, using the example of the hot skillet, after placing your hand over the skillet, you will be able to FEEL the skillet emitting heat without actually touching the device. Radiant heat can also roast marshmellows on a frosty night or make your face FEEL warm on a cold and sunny day.
Radiant heat can travel extremely fast actually, at the speed of light until one of two things occurs: The heat (energy) either gets REFLECTED or ABSORBED. Any object absorbs SOME amount of radiant heat. A dark roof is able to absorb almost all this radiant energy and its temperature can easily climb up to 170 degrees when it s hot and sunny. The heat is then re radiated in different directions. This heat ends up some place, and the next thing in line is the attic insulation on your ceiling. Eventually, it too will heat up. This is like draping your home with a hot blanket.
If there s no radiant barrier, the maximum surface temperature (and not air temperature) of your attic insulation can exceed 130 degrees. When this happens, your ceiling THINKS and ACTS as though it s more than 130 degrees outside. It’s no wonder that it isn t possible for you to be comfortable and that your air conditioning unit runs without a break. This is a HUGE difference between outside and inside temperatures. All this means your home uses a lot of energy (read money) in order to suck out the heat (using air conditioning) for keeping you comfortable.
Wouldn t it be great if you could KEEP the heat from coming inside in the first place rather than having to spend money for ejecting it AFTER it has entered your home?
The function of radiant barrier attic foil is to BREAK this path and prevent the radiant heat from getting inside. Rather than absorb the heat, which most products do, radiant barrier can REFLECT a full 97 percent of the radiant energy. Essentially, what it does is bounce the radiant energy back to where it came from. You don t need to worry about roof temperatures increasing. Research has shown that temperatures increase only from 2 to 10 degrees on roofs with radiant barrier.
Once you have a radiant barrier installed, usually, the insulation s maximum surface temperature will be restricted to inside a few degrees of ambient (or, outside) air temperature. Many people seem to keep talking about a “Cooler Attic.” That s nice, but what we actually want is the insulation s TOP to stay cooler. By diminishing the gap between surface temperatures on the outside and inside, we can effectively keep the home comfortable and save on energy.
Some companies make tall claims of 30 to 50 percent savings from installing radiant barrier foil insulation. Don t get taken in by every claim that you come across. In most cases, normal savings is usually around 5 to 20 percent with some instances of savings of 30 percent or more. It s necessary for you to be realistic with what to expect; if the roof is bigger, the percentage impact of radiant barrier is higher. Of course, any home can get rid of heat gain by using radiant barrier.
See it this way the foil acts like a shade for your home. If the heat isn t able to get in, it s not necessary to spend money to get it out. It s as simple as that.
Author Resource:
Ed Fritz is the owner of http://www.AtticFoil.com . His passion is to help homeowners make their homes more comfortable and energy efficient. He has helped literally thousands of customers by sharing his first hand experiences using radiant barrier foil. For more http://www.radiantbarrierguru.com
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