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Radiant Barrier to Your Attic Insulation
Attic Insulation
Date: 5/26/2019 12:24:47 PM ( 5 y ) ... viewed 232 times Adding radiant barrier (also called shiny foil) to your conventional attic insulation can increase your home's energy efficiency. Why does radiant barrier work? Well, heat travels from hot to cold. In cold weather, what you need to worry about is the heat getting out and not so much about the cold getting in. The process is called "heat loss," and the goal with any insulation is to Insulation services reduce heat loss.
The radiant barrier helps with heat loss by reducing heat loss in its bright form and by reducing what's called "convective looping." Convective looping has to do with the airflow inside your conventional insulation. The higher the degree of airflow, the more your R-value will be reduced.
Although radiant foil can be used on its own, it's not necessarily a substitute for traditional attic insulation. They work well together. Fiberglass or cellulose insulation works to reduce conductive heat loss, and radiant barrier reduces radiant heat loss. When you install radiant barrier directly over your regular attic insulation, it'll work with reflectivity and emissivity.
Reflective foil works with reflectivity by bouncing the heat back where it came from, so the heat that's already inside will bounce off the foil and stay there. And in the summer, radiant heat that would typically come off the roof and be absorbed by the insulation will be reflected outside where it belongs.
Another way adding radiant foil on top of attic insulation will make your insulation more effective is by minimizing convective looping. Traditional insulation reduces heat loss by slowing down the flow of conductive heat, but for it to do this efficiently, the air inside the insulation has to be still. Most ceilings don't have an air barrier on top, so air will flow into your insulation, causing air movement and making it less effective. You need a way to trap that air, which is what the radiant barrier does.
Radiant foil can act as an air barrier and reduce the amount of air movement inside the insulation, thus maintaining its R-value. So combining traditional attic insulation with a top layer of radiant barrier in your attic is the most effective way to keep your house comfortable and keep your energy costs low.
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