Does your home need more insulation?

The idea behind insulation is pretty simple: It works all year long to make your home more comfortable and energy efficient. In the winter, it slows heat loss and helps prevent condensation buildup. During summer months, insulation reduces heat gain and helps keep your home cool.

Even if your home is only 10 or 15 years old, it may not have enough insulation in the attic, in the walls or under the floors. If you live in a much older home, it’s pretty likely that adding more insulation will help reduce your heating and cooling bills. In fact, adding insulation to your home can cut heating and cooling costs anywhere from 15 to 45 percent, depending on factors such as the original amount of insulation, house size, air leaks and personal energy use and living habits.

For many insulating job locations in your home, such as the attic and basement, handling the work yourself can save money. However, some jobs – insulating walls and foundations, for example – are more difficult and time-consuming. In those cases, calling a professional insulation contractor for installation may be the wisest choice.

How much insulation do you already have?

Insulation is rated by R-value, a measure of its ability to resist heat loss or heat gain. The higher the R-value, the better a material insulates.

Before you go shopping for insulation, it’s important to know how much you already have in the various areas of your home.

• Check the attic. This is the most important place for you to have adequate insulation in your home. This is also usually the easiest place for “do-it-yourselfers” to figure out how much insulation is there, because access is good and the only tools you need are a flashlight and a ruler or yardstick.

       Use the chart below to figure out what kind of insulation you have. Then measure the insulation’s depth and multiply it by the factor shown to estimate the R-value of your existing insulation.

 • Look into the walls. It’s pretty difficult to add insulation to existing walls, unless you’re planning to add new siding to your home or finish an unfinished space. However, there are insulating methods (usually handled by a professional insulating contractor) that can bring the R-value up to the appropriate level.

         One method of determining if exterior walls are insulated is to check around electrical outlets in the walls. (Be sure to turn off the power first!) Remove the cover plates and shine a flashlight into the crack around each outlet box; you should be able to see whether or not insulation is in the wall. Be sure to check separate outlets on the first and second floors – and in different parts of the house – because wall insulation in one wall doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s in all walls.

       If you can’t see insulation around the outlets, remove a section of baseboard molding or paneling to expose an exterior wall cavity, cut a hole in the wall of a closet or cabinet that faces an outside wall, go to the attic and look down openings in the top plates of exterior walls or take out a small section of exterior siding.

 • Inspect under floors. Check the underside of any floor over an unheated space such as a garage, basement or crawlspace. Inspect and measure the thickness of the insulation you find there. It most likely will be fiberglass batts, so multiply the thickness in inches by 3.2 to find out the R-value. If the insulation is a foam board or sprayed-on foam, use any visible label information or multiply the thickness in inches by 5 to estimate the R-value.

 Use this chart to calculate the R-value of the insulation you have in your attic now