By increasing your home’s R-value you will immediately impact your comfort, and potentially save you hundreds a year on your heating and cooling expenses. That is why you might want to spend a little bit of time figuring out what steps you can take to improve your home’s insulation and overall efficiency. Plus, optimizing your home will help it last longer.
Use Blow-In Insulation
There are quite a few reasons why so many people have switched over to blow-in insulation in recent years. In addition to being very easy to install, blow-in insulation usually has a high R-value as well. This type of insulation can also be installed directly over older batts and rolls that are aging or damaged. As long as you have a weekend to spare and a place to rent an insulation blower, this is a fairly simple project that doesn’t require any training.
Swap Out Exterior Doors
All of the exterior doors throughout your home are going to have a big impact on your heating and cooling expenses. Older doors are notoriously inefficient and they are going to allow quite a bit of heat to escape. Replacing older exterior doors with fiberglass or high-efficiency storm doors could have an immediate impact on your energy bills, and that project should require nothing more than a screw gun or screwdriver.
Replace Old Weatherstripping
Weatherstripping is used in a few different places throughout a home, and that includes exterior doors. Over the years, that stripping is eventually going to become damaged from heavy use, moisture, and direct sunlight. When the weatherstripping is cracked, you will probably notice unwanted temperature fluctuations inside your home. This is another straightforward project that can usually be completed in a single afternoon with a few basic tools.
Upgrade the Windows
In addition to upgrading the exterior doors and weatherstripping, you might want to think about window glass replacement as well. Many building contractors use single pane glass because it is inexpensive, but that type of glass has one of the lowest R-values. Modern double-pane or even triple-pane windows will capture and redirect UV rays before they get a chance to heat your home. After the window panes have been replaced, you can then put up thicker curtains for improved efficiency.
Before you begin the process of improving your home’s efficiency, you should consider investing in a thermal leak detector. That simple device will show you exactly which materials and areas are the most inefficient, and that will help you come up with a comprehensive plan for improving the insulation.
