Lane Street Inn saves with Radiant Barrier

Older homes can often offer challenges when trying to effectively cool the upper floors during the high heat of summer.  Eben Bryant, owner of Lane Street Inn, a small bed and breakfast in Shelbyville, TN, says he began looking into Radiant Barrier when his wife and their cleaning staff began complaining about the hot rooms upstairs this past summer.  You can read more about Eben’s story here:

(Review of AtticFoil.com from Eben Bryant)

The AtticFoil product I purchased and installed has proven beneficial. When researching radiant barrier, I came across AtticFoil.com and found all I needed to make an informed decision. Other user’s comments and photos encouraged me to perform the installation myself. Over two nights, my nephew and I installed over 4,000 square feet of AtticFoil in the attic of my 100 year old bed and breakfast.

I researched a number of radiant barrier dealers online and locally. I found a dearth of dealers in my area of Tennessee and only a handful of dealers online. Researching the prices, I found AtticFoil to be the most competitively priced on a per square foot basis. I also surmised that the AtticFoil product would be more durable than some of their competitor’s thinner products. I liked that the material is heavy and strong. You cannot tear it with your hands. Pulling it out along my rough attic floor was not a problem. You don’t have to handle this stuff carefully like you might with some thinner products.

Overview of attic space at Lane Street Inn

I am a do-it-yourself type of guy and luckily my nephew that helped is young and strong. While there were some scuffed knees and bumped heads, the install went relatively easy. In old houses you have to find ways to improvise. To get around the fact that my attic has high ceilings and very little floored area, we built temporary scaffolds out of scrap 2x4s, unscrewing them and moving them as we went along. To get over the attic heat, we pulled up a couple of HVAC registers and had them blowing into the attic. (Learn more about this trick here) We also worked from about 9:00 pm to 4:00 am during the coolest part of the night.

RESULTS – Before we installed AtticFoil, the temperature in our attic would typically be 20 to 30 degrees higher than the outside air. After the install, the temperature now does not really go more than 10 degrees higher than the outside air. Before the install, the second-floor air conditioning would run constantly. The ducts are in the attic. Temperatures would not fall down to even 74 degrees until nearly 1:00 am. Now we can get all of the guest bedrooms upstairs to comfortable temperatures even before the sun goes down. And the A/C is not running continuously.

Corner view of Attic at Lane Street Inn

My wife and her cleaning staff had complained of the uncomfortable temperatures on the second floor all summer. Two days after we installed the barrier and the attic had a chance to cool off, the second floor was noticeably cooler. I was really glad when my wife said, “I think that radiant barrier you installed in the attic has helped tremendously.” Other than what I had read online about radiant barrier, I wasn’t too sure it would work. Well, it did and I am very glad.

Overall, the cost of my rather large installation, including paying my nephew and buying some staplers, was about $1,000. I expect with the savings on my utility bills that I should recoup this cost within one year.

Eben Bryant

(Note from Ed) after reading Eben’s note and checking out his pictures of his installation, I sent him the following reply from which some of you may benefit:

A sturdy sheet of AtticFoil Radiant Barrier

Eben, I want to thank you for writing the kind review and sending me these pictures.

From looking at your pictures, I wanted to offer offer some advice.

Radiant barrier is your first line of defense against radiant heat and “regular” insulation is your second line of defense against conductive heat.

Looking at your pictures, it looks like you only have a few inches of insulation in your attic.

I would look to getting this up to 12-15″ for maximum year round protection against heat loss in Winter  and heat gain in Summer.

I would also get a can of foam and foam around all the ceiling air conditioner registers to the sheetrock.  This will reduce air infiltration.

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