Fall Insulation Tips - Home Energy Savings Coming Your Way, Sarasota

Every year come fall people start thinking of cooler temperatures, upcoming holidays, and all the things that make this time of year great but they tend to neglect their homes. Fall is one of the best times to prepare your home for the cooler weather and also a great time to prepare it for next year's hot summers with these energy-saving tips you can take care of now!

4 Tips To Make Your Home More Energy-Efficient This Fall

1) Adding Blown-In Insulation To Your Attic Will Help Retain Energy - That's right, with the proper amount of insulation in your attic your home will be more energy efficient allowing you to keep the heat in longer in the colder months and keeping the cool air in during the hot summer months we have here in the Sarasota area. Typically we recommend our clients have R-38 insulation installed in their attics per the Department of Energy's recommendations. That means you should have at least 15" of insulation in your attic. If you can see the ceiling joists in your attic, you need more insulation! Interestingly this is a fairly new recommendation and the code actually changed a few years back as well making nearly 90% of the homes in the Sarasota area underinsulated. 2) Sealing Attic Door Access - Attic Doors and Stairways often allow drafts to form pushing hot humid air into your home in the summer and sucking the heat out in the winter. This causes your A/C and/or heat pump to have to work harder to try and keep up. While it's not as bad as having a door wide open all day, it still wastes energy the same way so it's something you want to prevent. We offer attic stairway insulators that help seal off the attic from your home and actually prevent drafts while still allowing your attic to be easily accessible for any maintenance tasks you may have. 3) Solar Attic Fans - While not as critical this time of year, Solar Attic Fans are an essential tool to keeping your home cool and comfortable in the hot Sarasota summers. The Attic fans actually suck the cool air up from your soffits and blow the hot air out the top of your roof through the fans. This air circulation allows for optimal temperatures in your attic which also allows your A/C system to not work as hard prolonging its lift and helping prevent costly A/C repairs. Since our attic fans are solar, they not only save on energy while running but the stress they take off your A/C system also helps conserve energy allowing it to run less often saving you money on energy! 4) Insulating Your A/C System - Often times in attics here in Florida we have A/C ductwork that is exposed to the high temperatures in our attics. To improve the efficiency of your A/C system, we can actually cover your ducts with a layer of insulation as well, helping shield them from the temperatures in the attic and allowing treated air to stay the proper temperature longer. This allows the thermostat in your home to reach the desired temperatures faster while using less energy!

Energy-Efficient Insulation Tips On The Fall Season To-Do List

So there you have it, 4 tips to improve your home's energy efficiency this fall season through proper attic insulation and efficiency methods. Sarasota has huge changes in weather throughout the year from extreme heat and humidity to wet cold bone-chilling air in the coldest parts of winter. With proper techniques in place that you can start this Fall season, your home will be ready for anything the weather throws at it without breaking the bank!