Attic Insulation

Your home’s attic probably isn’t the first place you think of when it comes to energy efficiency—but it should be! In fact, your attic can lead to significant energy loss and comfort issues throughout the year if it’s not properly insulated. At Wise Home Energy, we install attic insulation throughout the Greater Rochester area to help homeowners make their homes more comfortable, decrease their energy bills, and more. Not every attic is the same, however, and we can help you determine the best type of attic insulation for your home, we offer:

• Closed-cell spray foam insulation
• Loose-fill cellulose insulation

How You Benefit From Attic Insulation

Insulation creates a barrier between the living spaces of your home and the outdoors, working similarly to a down jacket. This added layer prevents heat flow and protects your home from the elements, while also improving your energy efficiency. Attic insulation has many other benefits, including:

• More consistent temperatures – Attic insulation can increase your home comfort by reducing the amount of heat transfer in and out of your home.

• Less wear & tear on your HVAC equipment – Since your home will have the protective layer of insulation to keep your conditioned air inside, your heat pump or other HVAC system won’t need to work as hard to keep up with your ideal temperature settings.

• Ice dam prevention – Attic insulation is one of the most effective home services to combat the stack effect and ice dams.

• Lower utility bills – By increasing your home’s energy efficiency, attic insulation can help reduce your energy costs all year long.

• A quieter home – Insulation has many sound dampening qualities that leave your home feeling more peaceful and quiet.

• Improved indoor air quality – Pollutants, moisture, and pests can all gain access into your home through the attic—all of which can have a serious impact on your IAQ. Attic insulation helps to keep these contaminants out of your home, where they belong.

The Stack Effect: Why Your Upstairs is Always Uncomfortable

The stack effect is a building science concept that refers to the airflow in a home and the differences in pressure and temperature between the indoor and outdoor air. In the winter, the warm indoor air will rise and pressurize before it’s forced out through gaps and cracks found in your attic. That air is then replaced with cooler air from your crawl space or basement and the never ending cycle continues. In the summer the stack effect is reversed, and warm air forces its way down through those same air leaks, pushing the cool, conditioned air into your home’s lower levels.

The stack effect is a common problem for Rochester area homeowners that have significant air leaks in their under insulated attics. It’s the reason your home’s upper levels are always stuffy in the summer and drafty in the winter, making it difficult to get comfortable. The stack effect could even be the reason behind recurring ice dams in your home!

Air Sealing: The Key to Maximizing Your Insulation Benefits

Attic insulation can provide several benefits to your home. However, if you insulate before sealing the gaps and cracks that create unwanted airflow, you can still be susceptible to ice dams and other comfort issues. That’s where air sealing comes in! Combining insulation and air sealing is a process known as weatherization in the building science industry. Putting these two services together enhance the benefits of them both, further increasing your home’s energy efficiency.

Get Started With a Wise Home Assessment

Before starting any insulation and air sealing project, we always recommend getting a Wise Home Assessment first. This comprehensive analysis of your home involves using specialized tools to help us evaluate the quality of your current insulation and discover air leaks that could be leading to energy loss. Home assessments allow our team to fully utilize our building science knowledge in order to find the most effective solutions to your efficiency and comfort issues.

Wise Home Energy has been helping homeowners throughout Monroe, Livingston, and surrounding counties with our HVAC and home performance upgrades since 2010. We’ve completed over 3,000 Wise Home Assessments and close to 2,000 insulation projects. With our help, you can enjoy the comforts of your home all year long, see lower energy costs, and help navigate incentive programs such as the IRA so you can breathe easier with better indoor air quality.