Preventing Heat Loss Through A Water Heater Radiant Barrier
A water heater radiant barrier has one main purpose: to save you the energy and associated electric costs that you might otherwise lose if your heat is allowed to escape out of your room.
The last thing that you, as a homeowner, want is to have to put out lots of noney to upgrade your HVAC system. But come winter or summer, thanks to the extreme temperatures, many homeowners find themseles focusing on the cooling or heating ability of their HVAC system. Before they even consider putting out a lot of money to install a more powerful and efficient heat pump or hydronic furnace, the homeowner must be sure that his house envelope is sealed adequately.
That simply means that the windows, baseboards and doors shouldn't leak and your insulation needs to be adequate to prevent the heat from ecaping into or out of the home's interior. Unfortunately, many homes can't claim to have sufficient insulation to accomplish this purpose. The insulation inside the walls is, of course, a concern, but even more so is the attic.
Heat loss during cold months is especially a concern, because, as we know, heat rises. If you don't have good enough insulation in the attic, this could result in your heating system cycle being on more frequently than it should be, because of heat loss. But instead of piling more insulation on top of what is already in the attic (which might cause moisture and mold issues), if you add a water heater radiant barrier, you'll probably find that this is a quicker, safer and more affordable method for fighting heat loss.
Your radiant barrier will act similar to how aluminum foil works when it's wrapped over a hot roll. Specifically, it prevents heat from escaping, thus ensuring that the inside keeps warm. The result of having a radiant barrier properly installed will be the retention of warm air within your room or home. As the HVAC's heating cycle kicks in, its intake will have a warmer air soruce with which to heat. Other results will be a reduced amount of wear and tear on its air handler, plus longer gaps of time between each heating cycle.
In short, your radiant barrier will provide you a warm and comfortable home or room. It will save you money because of there being less wear and tear on the cooling and heating system. Additionally, a reduced number of repair calls will save you even more money.
If you're thinking about adding insulation to your home, this is a lot easier than you might think. The cost, of course, varies depending on many factors, but it is sometimes as much as 50 percent cheaper if you do the project yourself, without hiring a contractor. Radiant barrier insulation is normally made of a sheet of reflective material. This coating could be aluminum or other reflective coating, and could be used on cardboard, plywood sheathing or plastic films.
Installing your barrier is a lot easier than you might at first think. Ideally, you should place it right on top of the insulation already in your attic, if it's going in an exsiting home. An altnernative method, however, would be to attach your insulation to the bottom of your roof rafters.
If the insulation is for a home just now being built, you might try laying your water heater radiant barrier to the top of the rafters, before you apply the roof deck. Wherever you put it, you can be sure that your home will stay warmer, and fewer of your hard-earned dollars will leak out the windows or door.
