PART ONEHOW HEAT MOVESINSIDE YOUR HOME

PART 1HOW HEAT MOVES INSIDE YOUR HOME

In areas with cold climates, we bundle up to stay warm. In essence, what we’re doing is insulating our bodies against the cold. In much the same way, insulation is what helps keep buildings – your home included – nice and cool inside even when it’s sweltering out. You may ask: How does insulation help my home in a tropical climate?

Well, one thing about heat is that it isn’t static. It moves, and it can easily enter your home, making it hotter than you want it to be. Let’s try to understand how heat moves inside your home in the first place, where it stays, and where it escapes to, exactly.

Heat moves and flows in and out of your home – traveling through conduction, convection, and radiation.

The ground on which your house stands is soil or rock that absorbs the heat that flows down directly from the sun to the Earth. This heat moves through your walls, floors and your roof. Now, what happens to that heat? One of three things:

• The heat that is conducted through the metal, brick, and other materials of your home’s structure heats up the air both inside and outside the home. It enters your home through metal door frames and window frames, or is absorbed by concrete floors.

PART 1HOW HEAT MOVES INSIDE YOUR HOME

• In the same way that you feel the heat radiating from something hot – such as a campfire or fireplace – the heat in your home is constantly radiated from the sun and back into the atmosphere. This explains why heat from the sun can be felt directly, even when you’re in a cold room. Radiation is also how infrared photos capture heat movement inside your home.

• As air gets warmer, it rises. Colder air falls. This natural occurrence, known as convection, facilitates air movement and is also the main principle used in central cooling equipment.

Various forms of insulation can help you control the temperature inside your home without overworking your cooling systems. The less insulation you have, the more you use your air conditioning to regulate indoor temperatures, and that’s bad news for the environment as well as your energy costs. You’re using more fuel, and generating more carbon dioxide. Insulation is a process that can help you reduce both.

Your home can’t win against the heat on its own. Do you have proper insulation to help you? Here’s a tip: start with your roof. We discuss why in Part 2 of this e-book.

PART TWOTHE ROLE OF ROOF

INSULATION

PART 2THE ROLE OF ROOF INSULATION

Ever wondered why you put a lid on top of a hot cup of coffee or cover a pot to let the ingredients simmer? Convection transfers heat over a distance much faster than conduction, and that means hot air rises a lot faster to your roof than it is absorbed by other materials in your home.

Your home’s own power version of a lid is the roof. The hot air that rises, whether through natural convection or through cooling systems, makes the roof cavity a lot warmer than the rest of your house. In addition, the roof is also exposed to a great deal of solar heat. Walls and floors come with their own forms of insulation, but without roof insulation, you’re still quite vulnerable. By properly controlling the flow of heat in your attic, you’ll be preventing sudden temperature spikes and reducing your cooling costs.

THE ROLE OF ROOF INSULATION IN CLIMATE CONTROL

Equipping your roof with the right thermal insulation is key in controlling the heat trapped in your roof cavity. Thermal insulation refers to the material designed to keep heat from being transmitted or transferred from one area to another. In the case of roof or attic insulation, it acts as a barrier between your roof and the inside of your home, and controls the heat before it can travel further.

PART 2THE ROLE OF ROOF INSULATION

THE IMPORTANCE OF VENTILATION

While insulation is used to confine heat to the roof, the passive solar features of your home, i.e., non-electrical or mechanical ventilation provided by eaves and overhangs, awnings, or shutters, allow the heat to escape, and your home to cool down. These features also filter out the hot sun while still allowing the lower-temperature sunlight to enter and heat the building in cooler weather. You may also opt for more active solar features, such as solar-powered attic fans that pull out hot air. These can be installed on tile, shingle, metal, and flat roofs, and on gables or walls.

Keeping your home cool year-round is definitely important when you live in Florida. Your insulation should be incorporated into your home design with that in mind.

Speaking of options, there are plenty of ways to insulate your roof. You’re almost all ready to get on with your roof insulation, but not before you discover the best roof insulation material for your home. Stay tuned, we discuss that and more in Part 3 of the e-book.

PART THREETHE BEST WAY TO

INSULATE YOUR ROOF

PART 3THE BEST WAY TO INSULATE YOUR ROOF

Living in a vacuum-sealed air conditioned box lined with insulation material simply isn’t an option, though it would be a great way to beat the heat. Fortunately, there are roof insulation methods and materials that have proven to be much better choices. Some insulation materials even boast of a lower environmental impact, such as those made from recycled paper, glass, or plastic bottles.

An excellent way to compare insulation materials is to look at the cost per R-value. The R-value of a material is how effectively it resists the heat flowing through it. The greater the value, the greater the resistance. It can also retain the heat gained from the sun a lot longer, and make it easier for heat to be let out through ventilation. Wool materials may not have the best R-values compared to that of polyurethane and polyisocyanurate foams -- with 3 per inch for fiberglass and 3.8 for cellulose -- but they do deliver good results at a much lower cost. More importantly, they are suitable even for tropical and subtropical climates.

Among these is glass wool, or fiberglass, which was invented in 1932–1933 by Russell Games Slayter of Owens-Corning as a material to be used as thermal building insulation. Not to be confused with the plastic composite material, glass wool is made from a mixture of natural sand and recycled glass that is then converted into fibers in a method similar to making cotton candy. This creates countless small pockets of air that can trap heat and result in high thermal insulation properties. The same principle is used in mineral wool or fiber made from molten -- although usually synthetic minerals, such as slag and ceramics.

PART 3THE BEST WAY TO INSULATE YOUR ROOF

Cellulose insulation is another green alternative made from recycled paper and cardboard. It is heavier than fiberglass, however, so it needs to be prevented from clumping in walls and, as a result, losing its insulation value. This is why some manufacturers opt to treat cellulose with a small amount of adhesive.

Moisture- and fire-resistant chemicals, such as borate and ammonium sulfate, are often used to treat insulation to keep the roof cavity dry and help protect it from fire. As a precaution, however, it is not recommended to have anyone other than a certified roofing contractor install any insulation. Only by following recommended professional work practices can your loft or attic insulation be installed safely and properly.

A contractor should be called in to either roll out the batts of insulation material or install the loose-fill form via a special machine, using a mechanical ‘blowing in’ process.

Arry’s Roofing

401 East Spruce StreetTarpon Springs, FL 34689

(727) 362-2230

ArrysRoofing.com