I learned something new today. I had always thought that homes lost heat upward through the roof because heat rises. I thought that the only place you had to worry about insulation would be the attic beuase that is where the heat loss comes from.I knew you had to insulate the walls, but I thought this was because you were trying to keep the cold OUT, not the heat in. I found out in an article today that heat naturally flows from any warmer space to a cooler space.
This means, that if your furnace is heating the main part of your home, the warm air is flowing to whatever part of your home that is a cooler space, not just upward. It goes directly from all heated living areas to the outdoors and an attached unheated attics, garages and basements, or wherever there is a temperature difference.
To maintain the temperature of your home inside in the winter, your heating system must replace heat lost and in the summer the heat gained (because the heat is moving INSIDE to a cooler area..) must be removed by your air conditioner.
Insulating your ceilings, floors and walls decreases the heating or cooling by your home systems by providing an resistance barrier to the flow of heat.
Batt insulation, blankets, low-density foams, and loose fill insulation all work by limiting air movement. Some types of insulation are filled with special gases that provide even more resistance to heat flow.
In the next article, I will go over some ways you can check your home to determine how you can improve your heating bill by addressing specific areas.
