HVAC and Insulation From a Working Tech
If you’ve ever wondered why your hardwood floors feel like ice in January despite a fully heated basement, I want to tell you about a service call I went on a few years back in a 1960s split-level outside of Salt Lake City. The homeowner had already replaced her furnace, added attic insulation, and even … Read more
Last summer, I got a call from a homeowner in Gilbert, Arizona — let’s call him Ray — who was furious. He’d just paid a contractor $1,200 to install a radiant barrier in his attic, and his July electric bill was nearly identical to the year before. “The guy told me I’d cut my cooling … Read more
Last Tuesday, I got a call from a homeowner in South Minneapolis who’d just spent $3,200 having a contractor blow R-60 cellulose into his attic. He was frustrated. His master bedroom was still cold. His energy bill barely budged. And when I climbed into his attic with a thermal camera on a 15-degree January night, … Read more
I’ve been crawling around in hot attics for over a decade, and the question I get more than almost any other is this: do radiant barriers actually work, or are they just shiny snake oil? Last summer, I finally ran my own radiant barrier attic hot climate test with real temperature probes, real data, and … Read more
Here’s a mistake I see constantly: homeowners spend $2,000 or more on new attic insulation, only to wonder why their energy bills barely budge. I’ve walked into dozens of those attics and found the same problem every time. The insulation went in first — and the air leaks were never touched. Getting the air sealing … Read more