Even though we splurged and bought triple-pane, the glazing is always going to be a weak link in the insulation. ![]() The south windows are great on sunny winter days, but not so much during the night or on overcast winter days. The wood stove is located in a room with a lot of south-facing glazing. We heat primarily with a wood stove during the winter. The very unrealistic demonstration using a heat lamp to “simulate” attic conditions really upset me, and the salesman was quickly removed from the house. Since my dad is on a fixed budget and I am an engineering student, he likes to run these things by me. My father had me sit in on a sales call by a tradesman selling “radiant insulation” in the Omaha area. Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections – Email – Minnesota Home Inspector If you want to improve the insulation in your attic, hire a reputable insulation contractor from Minnesota. With no ductwork in the attic, the average annual savings would drop to about $5 per year. The problem with applying this generous savings model to Minnesota homes is that most Minnesota homes don’t have ductwork in the attic. Oak Ridge National Laboratory has concluded that radiant barriers will give an average Minnesota home some savings in energy – somewhere around $10 – $40 per year, assuming the home has ductwork in the attic. Two days after that email exchange, the Minnesota Department of Commerce issued a consumer alert warning about these types of insulation systems, saying the exact same thing. I immediately wrote this concerned reader back, telling him this system was a waste of money. In other words, the value of a radiant barrier in a Minnesota attic is very close to nothing. Can you guess how much heat is lost in Minnesota attics due to radiation? I’m no engineer, so I can’t give you any hard numbers… but I know the answer is very close to nothing. The problem with this product is that it only works to prevent radiant heat transfer it does nothing to prevent convective heat transfer, conductive heat transfer, or air leakage in attics. The material is sold in rolls, and is quite easy to install. Radiant barriers are essentially bubble wrap covered with foil on both sides. The system was installed two days after she signed the contract. She was convinced that this was a good investment after attending a free dinner, wherein the effectiveness of radiant barriers in Minnesota was highly exaggerated. ![]() Last week I received an email from a concerned reader who said his 85-year-old mother-in-law had recently purchased a $2,500 radiant barrier insulation system for her 1,800 sf townhouse in Austin, MN.
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