If you’re trying to cut down on your heating and cooling costs in Tempe, Chandler, and the Metro Phoenix area, home insulation retrofits are a smart way to lower your utility bills. But many homeowners are nervous that the cost of hiring a professional insulation contractor will outweigh their potential savings, and they turn to DIY insulation in an effort to save money.
But will removing and upgrading your home’s insulation yourself actually save you money, or will it be more headache in the long run? Today we’re going to take a look at the dangers and potential complications of DIY home improvement projects like insulation retrofitting.
The Dangers of Insulation Removal
To benefit the most from upgraded insulation, sometimes, you need to remove your old insulation first, instead of just putting new insulation on top of what’s already there. Old insulation can have mold or moisture issues, can contain animal waste such as rat droppings, or could even be contaminated with asbestos, and leaving it in place could continue to expose you and your family to health issues.
Old insulation should always be removed and disposed of before new insulation is installed, but handling old insulation comes with its own health issues, and if you aren’t careful, insulation removal from a home can stir up settled contaminants, reintroducing them into the air in your living spaces.
Professional insulation contractors will know the best practices for properly removing and disposing of wall, crawlspace, and attic insulation so that it poses the least risk to your home.
How You Benefit from Professional Insulation Installation
Properly insulating a home means making sure that your home’s thermal boundaries are completely protected from the outdoor elements. Even small gaps and underinsulated areas that are overlooked during the insulation replacement or upgrading process can lead to significant heating and cooling system waste and reduced comfort in your home from inconsistent temperatures. When we professionally install our insulation, our teams properly air seal the attic and pay special attention to air sealing large plumbing stacks and penetrations, dropped soffits and other tricky areas that are often overlooked.
Always Start with a Home Energy Audit
Any insulation retrofit project should kick off with an energy audit conducted by a home performance expert. An energy audit includes inspections and testing with advanced equipment that give you a precise assessment of how much energy is being wasted in your home through heat transfer and air movement, and where the specific areas of weakness in your home are.
Without an energy audit, you could be replacing insulation that doesn’t need to be replaced, spending money and time on work that won’t lower energy costs or improve home comfort, while the real problem areas are ignored.
Air Sealing + Insulation = Lower Energy Costs and Higher Comfort
Getting the full benefits of insulation means air sealing as well, using gun foam insulation to seal up the tiny cracks, gaps, and air leaks allowing air movement between the indoors and outdoors. Air sealing works in tandem with insulation, and without air sealing, the effectiveness of the new insulation installed in your home could be severely compromised. Using the data from a home energy audit, Ideal Energy can identify how airtight your home currently is, and where any gaps and cracks in your home’s building shell are located.
Our insulation services are about solving your home performance issues, and we have the insulation types to meet the needs of any part of your home, like:
- Loose fill cellulose
- Loose fill fiberglass
- Dense packed insulation
Loose fill blown cellulose and blown fiberglass insulation are often used to insulate attic floors, providing a thick layer of protection for your home’s living spaces. Dense pack insulation is great for homeowners looking for high performing wall or crawlspace insulation.
Make the Smart Home Insulation Decision with Ideal Energy
Insulation benefits your home all year, keeping your home cool when it’s hot outside and warm when it’s cold—there’s no such thing as summer or winter insulation. And with such an important component of your home performance, this is not a job you want only to get 80% right. That remaining 20% could be the difference between seeing a reduction in your home’s energy bills or not.
That’s why the best way to guarantee that your home insulation upgrade project will be done correctly is by skipping the DIY online tutorials for insulation replacement and calling a home performance professional, like the team of experts at Ideal Energy. Also, why not take advantage of your utility’s insulation rebates? Did you know that SRP has a $600 insulation rebate and APS has a $250 insulation rebate if you use a qualified contractor? Not to mention, it’s a pretty difficult, dirty and uncomfortable job to complete in our Arizona climate – your attic can get up to 150 degrees in the summer months! So save yourself the headache and choose us to help!