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Radiant barriers are made from highly reflective materials, typically aluminum sheets adhered to a cardboard or plastic film backing. They can be installed in any location where solar heat gain - or thermal heat loss - is an issue.
Most of the time, we think of reflective insulation barriers as a way to minimize solar heat gain during the warmest months of the year. However, installing a radiant barrier in the winter can improve whole-home comfort during the cooler months, depending on the climate, your home's orientation, and other structural factors.
During the cooler months, most of the warm air that escapes from the interior living spaces goes right up into the attic and through the roof. If we determine your home is susceptible to this type of heat loss, a properly installed radiant barrier will reflect that heat back down into your home.
During winter, cold air enters your attic through soffits and vents. This is a good thing because, in addition to being part of your home’s fresh air ventilation system, airflow is essential to keeping fresh air circulating through your home and minimizing condensation and moisture build-up that compromises structural integrity, whole-home comfort/humidity, and energy efficiency.
Radiant barriers work in partnership with attic insulation but are never a substitute for insulation. Radiant barriers utilize reflective properties to direct heat away from targeted locations. Insulation works to prevent or minimize heat transfer from one location to another.
As a result, every home benefits from insulation -- but not every home benefits from a radiant barrier. Here are some ways you can determine whether your home’s comfort would improve with the installation of a radiant barrier in the winter.
We recommend scheduling an attic inspection at least every other year or so to ensure your attic insulation, ventilation, and air sealing are adequate and working in your favor.
During this inspection, our attic pros can discuss your home's specifics. The radiant barrier must be installed correctly and in optimal locations to benefit you in the winter months. If a radiant barrier would hurt rather than help your home’s interior climate, or it’s installed incorrectly, the product can do more harm than good by trapping moisture inside the attic space or reflecting warm interior air away from your living spaces - rather than towards them.
Do your winter energy bills seem higher than normal? Barring notable rate increases, this means your heater is working harder than it should. There are multiple causes for unusual increases in energy spending, most of which are related to whole-home insulation, ventilation, and air sealing - which may include the recommendation to add a radiant barrier.
An attic inspection is a good first step to identifying why it’s costing extra to heat (or cool) your home. If everything looks good in the attic, the next step is to schedule an appointment with your HVAC technician.
We mentioned above that radiant barriers are not always the ideal solution and that it’s very home-dependent. This is because these barriers are primarily designed to work during the summer months to reflect solar heat gain back up and out of the roof.
Here in the Bay Area, we look at where your home is located in terms of microclimate, its orientation, and the surrounding tree cover. If you live in one of the Bay’s sunnier areas of town or there’s little to no shade on your roof, a licensed attic pro would need to determine whether or not your home is better off absorbing solar heat gain through the roof during the winter months.
If you live in a cloudy and shady area for much of the winter, a radiant barrier may be a smart lifetime investment as it will work to keep warm air inside the home, preventing it from escaping through your attic and roof.
Increased or uncomfortably warm upper levels are another sign you may benefit from installing a radiant barrier in the winter. Sometimes, zoned heating is the answer, allowing you to control HVAC function in various levels or areas of the home. However, better yet is to determine why so much heat is rising and making its way into the upper levels of the home in the first place - a sure sign heat is accumulating in the attic.
If heat is migrating upward, and you have adequate attic insulation and ventilation, a radiant barrier can reflect all of that heat down again, minimizing HVAC use and possibly preventing you from unnecessarily investing in a zoned heating/cooling system.
Are you interested in learning more about whether or not installing a radiant heat barrier would support your home’s comfort this winter season? Schedule an inspection with Attic Solutions. We’ve provided honest, competitively priced attic services to Bay Area homeowners for more than a decade.