The Benefits of Installing a Radiant Barrier in Your Attic

Radiant Barriers are a cost effective way of reducing energy cost in your home by reflecting the heat away from your attic space therefore making your air conditioning run more efficiently. The radiant barriers also helps keep the second story floor of your house maintain a closer temperature to the first floor temperature.

The radiant barrier is to reduce cooling loads in warmer or hot climates, It is primarily a thin but extremely durable thin sheet of highly reflective material usually aluminum applied to one or two sides of a substrate material.

There are two different types of radiant barriers installation a rafter installation, which is when the radiant barrier is attached to the faces or bottoms of the rafters or top chords of the roof trusses. It is important during this installation that air can flow at the roof peak about 6″ and 3″ at the bottom of the rafter.

The second type of installation is a floor installation where the barrier is laid across the floor of the attic on top of the existing insulation. The effectiveness of this type of installation depends on two variables. One, if it is reflective on only one side it needs to be facing up towards the roof. The second variable is a long term accumulation of dust may reduce the effectiveness of the method of installation.

In my opinion it makes sense to attach the radiant barrier to the rafters because if you have duct work and piping up in the attic you are going to be providing additional temperature control and “insulation” instead of leaving them exposed to the outside elements of extreme heat and cold.

If you want to “Do it Yourself” click here and order your own supplies. By the way, if you decide to do the rafter method you should probably order 50% more material than the square footage footprint of the attic space.