During the hottest months of the year, it’s normal for your home’s energy bill to spike as your cooling system works extra hard to beat the heat. If you want to stay comfortable and keep your energy bill at a reasonable amount, however, we have the solution you’ve been looking for: insulation. For tips on how to insulate your home for summer, consult this comprehensive guide.

The Importance of Insulation in the Summer

Most people understand the importance of a properly insulated home during the winter. However, insulating your space is just as vital during the summer months. Below, we will address some of the main reasons you should upgrade your insulation before the summer heat hits.

• Keeping Your Space Cool: In addition to trapping in warm air and keeping the cool air out, insulation can also block out heat and trap cool air inside. In other words, properly insulating your space is essential to keeping your home nice and cool during the hottest months of the year.
• Blocking Out Moisture: Your home’s insulation doesn’t just block out heat; it also helps keep moisture out of your home. If you can’t stand the excess humidity that often comes with the high temperatures of the summer, installing insulation that will act as an effective moisture barrier should be a top priority.
• Decreasing Your Energy Bill: Without an ample amount of quality insulation, any cool air your AC system produced would simply leak out of your home, while warm air from outside would find its way in. To keep up with the rapid loss of cool air, your air conditioner would need to work extra hard to produce enough cool air to keep your space comfortable. Because your AC system would have to operate at full power constantly, your energy bill would likely shoot through the roof.

Tips on Insulating Your Home This Summer

Now that you understand the importance of insulating your home during the hottest months of the year, let’s talk about how to insulate your home for summer successfully. To do so, follow these helpful tips.

See if Your Current Insulation Is up to Snuff

Just because certain areas of your home have insulation already, that doesn’t mean that you have the optimal setup. In fact, you probably don’t, considering roughly 90 percent of homes are currently under-insulated. There are many reasons why previously installed insulation may not perform its job as well as it could, from improper installation to material damage or degradation.

Such poorly insulated spaces are likely to blame for your sky-high electricity bills and the uncomfortable temperatures in your home despite your poor AC system working as hard as it can. As such, you’ll need to sniff out these under-insulated spaces. To do so, keep an eye out for a few common signs that your insulation could use an upgrade, such as:

• Temperature fluctuations throughout your home
• Unusually high energy bills
• Maintenance issues with your heating or cooling system due to overwork
• Pest infestations

In addition to looking out for these signs, you may want to enlist the help of a professional insulation company. They will be able to use expert practices to more accurately identify weak spots in your current insulation and assess your home’s insulation needs.

Pick an Insulation With a High R-Value

To beat the scorching summer heat, you’ll need to install insulation in your home that has a high R-value. The R-value of an insulation material indicates how well it will resist the conductive flow of heat. Essentially, the higher the R-value of a material, the more effective it will be at insulating your home.

Common home insulation materials that are known for having some of the highest R-values include closed-cell spray foam (6.5 R-value per inch), mineral wool (4-5 R-value per inch), cotton batts (3.5-4 R-value per inch), and open-cell spray foam (3.5 R-value per inch).

Don’t Forget About the Attic

Since you may not spend much time in your attic, you might wonder why insulating that area of your home serves any importance. Well, we are glad that you asked. The attic is actually one of the most important areas of your home to insulate when it comes to your comfort, your energy bill, and your home’s protection.

During the summer, the temperature of your attic can get extremely high. As a result, the heat in your attic can begin to draw cool air out of your home, which will decrease the comfort of your space and increase your energy bill substantially. In addition, an overheated attic can also cause damage to your roof’s shingles and soften the plywood on your roof deck.

By allowing moisture to infiltrate your space as well as heat, an under-insulated attic can further damage your home in the form of erosion, mold, and water damage. To avoid such consequences, make sure to insulate your attic properly this summer.

Make Sure To Hire a Professional Insulation Company

When it comes to installing insulation in your home, you should avoid going the DIY route. While many people think that they can install their own insulation, doing so poses a number of risks to both their safety and the state of their home. For example, installing certain types of insulation without following the proper protocols can pose health risks, such as respiratory issues or an increased risk of cancer, during and after insulation. In addition, trying to install insulation on your own without ample training or the necessary equipment could cause damage to your home if you accidentally block a vent or leave any gaps.

Plus, there is a good chance that, without professional training, you will install the insulation incorrectly, thereby preventing it from actually serving its purpose of blocking the flow of heat into your home. For these reasons, you should save yourself a headache and just call up a professional to complete the job right.

Speaking of professional insulation contractors, Paragon Protection is committed to helping provide top-quality insulation services to homes all across the Windy City. While we specialize in spray foam insulation in Chicago, we also offer other types of insulation, such as fiberglass, mineral wool, cellulose, and other popular options. To insulate your home properly for the summer, contact our expert installation contractors today.