Attic and Ceiling Insulation in your Home

You are here

If the attic lacks an appropriate vapor barrier, the most efficient way of insulating it is blowing in 18 inches of fiberglass or cellulose. And as you want to ensure cool, dry insulation throughout the year, put in enough soffit and roof vents for good air circulation. Warm air rises to exit via the peak vents on the roof and cool air from the outside flows in via the soffit vents, eliminating moisture damage and avoiding ice damming in the winter. 

Barriers and insulation in an atticIf your home’s air-conditioning load in the summer is more worrying than the heating requirement in winter, radiant insulation is a good option. This material is very much like aluminum foil and is stapled to the underside of the roof rafters. It reflects heat via the roof surface, without getting too close to the attic insulation.

Vapor barriers installed on ceilings should extend a few inches down the walls to overlap the barrier there. Ensure sufficient caulking at the overlap points. Your vapor barrier is useless if there are any rips, cuts or other damage that breaks the house’s seal. As you strive to achieve a plastic bag effect for your house, all cuts should be sealed and repaired well. Good workmanship will pay for itself in an energy-efficient home. 

The final touch is to have the attic hatch gasket-sealed to lower air leakage around it. If your house is more complicated than a standard design, discuss installation options with your architect at the planning stage. 

Energy-efficient living is similar to life in a plastic bag. By sealing all air leakage points and with vapor barriers running from the basement floor all the way up to the ceiling, a really airtight, sealed home is created. This is a huge contrast to an older house filled with leaks in the kitchen and cracks in the building structure. Although there is ventilation from these, heat loss is uncontrollable and causes a lot more energy loss. A 30-year-old home is likely to lose as much energy as if you knocked a hole in the wall a foot square! 

Schematic of a heat recovery ventilation system (HRV)Measures also need to be taken to ventilate your sealed home. Your choice of methods depends where you live. One of the neatest options is a Heat Recovery Ventilator system (HRV).  Stale, moist air coming out of the kitchen and bathroom is drawn to the outside of the house by the HRV unit, passing over a membrane as it exits. The transfer allows fresh, colder air to enter through the unit, passing over the membrane’s opposite side: waste heat from the exiting air warms the colder incoming air before it is distributed via the central furnace air duct.

You can install programmable controls and timers all around your house to monitor levels of smoke, humidity and carbon dioxide. CO2 monitoring verifies that ventilation is adjusted accordingly in an occupied home. The programmed control system sets the HRV to adjust the air flow automatically according to current conditions, while giving you great savings on heating. Homes that experience low winter heating loads may not get the full benefit