What You Should Know About Radiant Barrier Paint
What You Should Know About Radiant Barrier Paint
If you've never heard of radiant barrier paint, don't feel bad. It's not one of those household items you use everyday. However, it is something that will be a great help to you if you find yourself needing to save money on your energy bill. In addition to adding insulation to one’s household, there are other things that can be done along with adding the insulation that will help keep your energy costs under control. And radiant barrier is one of them.
Radiant barrier paint is a type of reflective coating that is applied to the underside of your roof that helps reflect heat away from not only your house, but from your insulation as well. This is meant to lower the amount of thermal radiation that permeates through the installed insulation of your house and increases the temperature in your house. Radiant barrier heat is not designed as a type of insulation to help keep heat in the house, but rather works as a barrier that keeps heat from getting into your house from the outside. This is quite useful especially in Southern states that have higher temperatures and need more of a cooling effect for most of the year than a warming effect. In essence, people will not see changes in the amount of energy they are spending on heating their houses in the winter, but will greatly see changes in the amount of energy spent on cooling their houses in the warmer months.
There are different ways that radiant barrier paint can be applied, with the two most common ways being spray on and sheet barriers. Either of the two ways can be done in a standard DIY ("do it yourself") situation.
The spray on application of this product is a type of liquid which is made up of paint and metal flecking. The metal flecking has the reflective properties that keep outside heat from entering through the surface and increasing the inside temperature. This type of application is considered much more durable and easy to apply than its sheet barrier counterpart,or reflective foil insulation; it also provides the ability to more easily get total coverage.
One of the possible downsides to the spray on version, compared with sheet barriers, is that they do not provide as much heat resistance as sheet barriers can provide when installed properly. However, with the increased durability and ease of application, the spray on paint arguably provides the same cost-effectiveness in the long run. The most common type of sheet barrier is applied to the roof before the shingles are laid. This type of barrier comes in long rolls and is unrolled across the top of the roof in a single layer and then the shingles are attached to the roof over top of the barrier layer.
One common misperception is that if a house is properly insulated, then this type of radiant barrier is not needed, but that's not at all true. This type of radiant heat protection functions in a completely different manner than the traditional type of insulation that people think of when they talk about house insulation. Traditional insulation works by controlling the heat transfer from inside of a house to the outside of the house, whereas the radiant heat barrier protects the house from incoming heat. For this reason, it is especially beneficial to have both types of protection so you can keep heat from leaving the house in the cooler months and at the same time have the added protection of keeping heat from coming in during the summer months. An attic radiant barrier is especially helpful.
Radiant barrier paint, therefore, is rarely ever a waste of either time or money. Rather, it is an investment in your home, since it makes your home a much more affordable place to live.
