In the first part of the second half of the radio program, Ed covers using radiant barrier in a metal shed/barn (that is not being conditioned), painting a radiant barrier and using a radiant barrier with your existing insulation.

Ed finishes up his interview by explaining surface temperatures, roof temperatures and the importance of attic ventilation to get the best results and the most comfortable living space.  He also explains why predicting savings is tricky since homes have different variables, and why partial coverage works with radiant barrier.

In the first segment Ed talks about how he got in to the radiant barrier business, where to get radiant barrier AtticFoil®, what it is and why it is different from regular kitchen foil.  Ed also talks about how AtticFoil® is constructed and the simple science behind how and why radiant barrier works.

That being said, many companies are selling radiant barrier with some form of insulation attached and claiming R-values of R-11 or more. The problem with these claims is that they are misleading to consumers and oftentimes the products only achieve an R-value of around 1.  Consumers are paying about double the cost, for virtually no additional benefit.

So how can they make claims that these type of products (fiberglass sandwiched with foil or bubble wrap with foil laminated to it) offer an R-11 value?  How does AtticFoil® compare to products like eShield and Prodex? The answer is in the fine print.

The bottom line is that if something sounds too good to be true – it just might be. Trust your gut and make sure you read the fine print. When looking to install a radiant barrier, you’re probably better off buying a pure radiant barrier and spending what you save on bulking up your traditional insulation if necessary. Consider your situation, and decide what is best for your home.

Watch the video below to find out what we discovered when we put it to the test.

Click here to view the embedded video.

For more information on Radiant Barrier’s effect on roofing shingles you can read this article:

The Effect of Radiant Barriers on Shingle Temperatures. Am I going to BAKE my shingles?

For more information and commonly asked questions, visit AtticFoil.com, your online source for Radiant Barrier Foil.

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.

Your roof acts the same way.  It can easily reach 150º or hotter on a sunny day.  This heat will then be re-radiated through the attic and will be absorbed by your attic insulation causing high energy bills and comfort issues.

This video illustrates how a radiant barrier works – plain and simple.  Rather than absorbing the radiant heat from the roof, let’s bounce it back and keep the attic insulation cooler. If you keep the insulation cooler, then less heat enters the home and you save money and stay more comfortable.

Think of it this way:  Radiant barrier is your 1st line of defense against radiant heat and your attic insulation is your 2nd line of defense against conductive heat.  They will actually work TOGETHER for maximum efficiency and comfort.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Looking for more videos on this topic? Check out my posts below.

Adding more insulation space between the roof deck and the sheetrock can be expensive, labor intensive and will reduce the ceiling height in the new room.

One option is to ventilate the roof deck and install a radiant barrier BEFORE you install insulation and sheetrock. This method helps keep the heat absorbed by the roof AWAY from the insulation by creating a THERMAL BREAK to reduce heat flow by conduction. This method also forces the energy absorbed by the roof to be converted into radiant energy. Radiant energy then can easily be reflected away with a radiant barrier.

Think of this method as a ONE-TWO Punch against heat gain. The radiant barrier is the 1st line of defense against radiant heat gain and regular type “R-Value” insulation is the 2nd layer of defense. This video shows a fast and effective way to install a radiant barrier into your roof assembly to maximize comfort and efficiency for your new attic room.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Looking for more videos on this topic? Check out my posts below.

External unit of a ductless mini-split

Sometimes you can do all this plus more and STILL have comfort issues.  It may never get comfortable or it’s freezing one minute and then too hot a few minutes later.

If you have given up and are ready to throw in the towel, then take another approach. You may  benefit from a Ductless Mini-Split Air Conditioner.  What’s a Mini-Split?  The best description is a  window air conditioner WITHOUT the window. If you have ever traveled to the Caribbean or the Orient you see them EVERWHERE.  The most common brands are Mitsubishi Mr. Slim, Sanyo, Daikin, LG, and Fujitsu just to name a few.

Ductwork is a very western idea. By using a ductless mini-split, you can easily bring more air conditioning (heat removal) to either an interior space or an exterior room without a noisy window unit.

Diagram of how a mini-split ductless system works

An air conditioner basically has three parts: 1) Compressor 2) Fan 3) Coil. A window air conditioning unit has all three together.  In a ductless air conditioner, the compressor is OUTSIDE and the fan and coil are INSIDE usually connected by a ¼” or 3/8” copper tubing.  The beauty it that the inside unit can be as far as 100 feet from the outside condenser.

Installation is pretty simple since there is usually NO electrical requirements for the inside fan coil.  Power to the inside unit is brought from the outside unit along with the refrigerant lines.  This means that basically you can drill a hole in a wall, run a 3” bundle of copper tubing, hang the indoor air handler on the wall, connect condensation tubing, set the outdoor unit, connect power and just like magic supply additional cooling and heating to any problem area.

Inverter vs. Non-Inverter Units

WARNING:  Mini-split air conditioners all look very similar but operate very differently. Traditional air conditioner units act like light switches – they are EITHER ON OR OFF.  They turn on, run for a while and turn off.  A mini-split with inverter technology acts like a DIMMER switch that automatically adjusts based on the required “load”.

Indoor portion of a ductless mini-split system

Inverter air conditioner units have several advantages.  First of all being comfort.  You will not have a big “swing” between feeling too cool and too hot.  Second is dehumidification.  By running longer at a lower level the inverter will pull more moisture out of the air resulting in better air quality and a “crisp” feel to the air.  Another advantage is energy efficiency.  Inverter air conditioners operate at a lower amperage and do not cause spikes in demand charge or light flicker when starting up.  Finally, the best feature of installing a mini-split air conditioner is CONTROL.  Whether it’s a bedroom, office or media room, you will be able to keep it cool and comfortable without having to cool the entire house.

Mini-split air conditioners are the fastest growing segment in the air conditioning industry.  Ease of install, efficiency, improved comfort and better dehumidification are just a few reasons never to throw in the towel on keeping comfortable.

Window with solar screen installed

One of the most frustrating problems is having comfort issues with a particular room in your home.  These are rooms that you can NEVER get quite cool enough no matter how hard you try.  The usual suspects are: Rooms over garages, bonus rooms, media rooms, master bedrooms that “stick out” from the house, and home offices.  In this article, I offer tips to help fix these problem rooms.

In order to fix the problem, you must first ask, “What exactly IS the problem”?

The easiest way to view any room is simply to look at it as a big box.  Heat enters the box and the air conditioner pulls the heat out.  The problem occurs when you combine several rooms (boxes) on ONE air conditioning system.  The airflow to each room will dictate how fast each room cools off.  The problem is that the sun, exposure, windows and internal heat loads (lights, people, computers, etc.) are DIFFERENT for each room and can CHANGE throughout the day. The “problem” rooms usually gain heat faster than the other rooms on the same air conditioning system.

Properly installed radiant barrier foil

There are two methods to TRY to fix this:  1) Keep the heat from entering in the first place or 2) Pull MORE heat out.

1) Keep the heat out – We want to STOP heat from entering so we don’t have to deal with it in the first place.  Start with the windows. If a window catches direct sun you need to shade the window.  Solar screens, window film, awnings or natural shade (trees) will all help – take your pick.  Then focus on the thermal envelope.  Walls should be well insulated and have some form of sheathing (usually ¾” foam board) on the ATTIC side of any walls to fully encapsulate the studs and the batts of insulation between them.  We call walls that face an attic “hot walls” for a reason.

Radiant barrier foil should be applied above and around any problem rooms. Ceilings should be sealed airtight and have plenty of insulation and ductwork should be checked for leaks or constrictions.

Open chaseway showing missing "blocking"

Finally, if the room is on the second floor, look for what is called an “open chaseway.”  This is the area between floors that usually has electrical, plumbing or ducts running through them.  Older homes often are missing “blocking” and allow hot or cold attic air to slide BETWEEN the floors and cook or chill the room from the bottom.  Open chaseways needs to be sealed up.

2) Pull MORE heat out – If you have done everything to keep the heat out and you still can’t stay comfortable, then the only other option is to pull more heat out. This usually requires the expertise of a good air conditioning contractor. You could need larger ducts, more ducts, additional return vents or a combination of these.

Unfortunately, on many “problem” rooms these measures have limited success. In fact, you can do EVERYTHING and STILL have comfort issues in some rooms.  What do you do?

Look for part 2 of this article: When all else fails – how to keep ANY room comfortable.

Basically it works this way.  Radiant heat is heat that is transferred across either an air space or a vacuum.  This is how the heat from the sun reaches the earth.  Radiant heat acts similar to a sound wave.  By definition, you MUST have either an air space or a void for radiant heat to even exist.

If you don’t have an air space then you basically have a solid.  Heat can essentially only move through a solid by conduction. This is by direct contact.  This is how an egg cooks on a hot skillet.

So, without an air space, you cannot have radiant heat. Without radiant heat there is no way to have a “Radiant Barrier”.  In fact, because of the conductive nature of pure aluminum, if you install radiant barrier foil WITHOUT the required air space it will actually work AGAINST you and INCREASE Heat flow.

The bottom line is you MUST have an air space on one side of a radiant barrier for it to work.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Looking for more videos on this topic? Check out my posts below.