If you have central air conditioning, there’s a good chance you’re staying reasonably cool and comfortable in your home during the summer heat. But what is it costing you? Are your electricity bills making you do a double take?
Many homeowners in Central Pennsylvania, including in Carlisle, Lancaster, and York, are under the impression that if their energy bills are high during the summer, it must be an issue with their AC. But this isn’t always the case! Poor insulation and air sealing can not only affect your home comfort, but they can send your utility costs skyrocketing—here’s why.
Insulation Helps Keep the Summer Heat Out
Insulation works to slow the transfer of heat through the building materials of your home. On a hot summer day, the sun is beating down on your roof, warming the shingles. That heat then moves from the shingles and into your attic space, where it will eventually make its way to your attic floor and down into your home.
If you have proper blown in insulation on your attic floor, that heat is going to have a harder time making its way into the living spaces of your house. But if your insulation is old, or destroyed by moisture or pests, or was improperly installed, that heat will find its way in, and your AC will have to run for longer to keep your home at the preferred temperature, using more energy. Old insulation removal and replacement can make a big difference.
Air Sealing Helps Prevent Hot Air From Getting Into Your Home
While insulation works to slow heat transfer, air sealing helps to prevent air movement in and out of your home. When it’s hot outside and cool inside, and your home has small cracks, gaps, and air leaks, that hot air can squeeze inside, pushing that cool air down and out of the bottom of your home, and forcing your AC into overdrive to keep up.
When a home is properly air sealed, hot air stays outside, where it belongs, and your cool conditioned air stays right where you want it. Plus, air sealing and weatherization actually improve the effectiveness of your insulation—the two work hand in hand to keep you and your family comfortable.
Schedule an Energy Audit Today and Find Out What You Could Be Saving
So how do you know if your home needs new green insulation and energy solution upgrades? A home energy audit is a great place to start. An audit measures the amount of the heat and air moving in and out of your house currently, and using advanced technology like blower door testing and infrared thermal cameras, can pinpoint exactly where the weak points in your home are.
The benefit of an energy audit is that, using the results, an Energy Smart Home Improvement auditor will sit you down and make their best recommendations as to the upgrades you most need, whether it’s bonus room insulation, or air sealing and crawl space encapsulation and insulation.
If your primary concern is rising energy costs, we’ll review your older bills with you and explain how insulation and air sealing will help your heating and cooling system run less frequently while maintaining the same temperature levels. We even check in with you long after the work is done to make sure that you’re satisfied with our work and that you’ve actually seen a reduction in utility costs.