It is time to get your house ready for summer. I see many of you working in your gardens, planting beautiful flowers, growing food, and mowing (one of my least favorite things to do). Are you also working on making your house healthy, comfortable, and energy efficient for this coming summer.
In a time that it looks like staycation is going to be the best thing to do for our economy, is your home ready for the summer heat? Here are some things to check and correct if they are not ready.
Attic insulation is on the top of my list. If you have blown-in or rolled in fiberglass / cellulose you need a minimum of 12″ to have a fighting chance of comfort and energy efficiency. Really you need 18″ or more of those options if your house is not air tight – and it probably is not based on all the energy audits I have been doing. The best attic insulation of course is sprayed foam which makes the attic to conditioned living area air tight. I did this in my own attic and it is making our house very comfortable.
Second on my list is checking your heating and cooling system. Have the filters been changed? Is the unit efficient? Does it still have enough life to get your through the warm months? A performance maintenance contract with a locally owned HVAC company is a great investment. They will change you filters and optimize the performance of your system.
Third thing to check off the list is doing a solar audit on your home. Could you be using these sunny days to help the environment and your pocket book? Based on the research Eric Beck, Jim Leaman, and (a very little portion) I did, you will cut your monthly expenses if you add solar to an unshaded south facing roof on your home. Really, you will pay less to the bank than you currently pay to the power company if you add solar (again if you have an unshaded and south facing roof).
Last think on my list to consider, do you need to do a renovation or addition? If so, give me a call and we can do a virtual meeting to discuss your options. Of course, this is a no cost to you meeting to figure out if there are viable solutions to your functional goals.
Other resources can be found on these blogs:
10 Things to make your summer more efficient and comfortable
