Improving Insulation In Your Home In The Cincinnati Area Is Easy With These 3 Tips

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Improving the insulation in your Cincinnati-area home begins with the basic understanding that heat is always trying to get into or out of your home. Insulation added to wall voids and your attic floor prevents or retards the transfer of heat through your walls or ceilings. Here are three guidelines for improving insulation in your home.

What kind?
The two most common types of home insulation are fiberglass batts and cellulose loose fill.

  • Fiberglass batts are blankets of fiberglass fibers cut to fit between the joists in your attic or the studs in wall spaces. Fiberglass insulation is usually the least expensive and easiest to install.
  • Cellulose is composed of recycled particles of paper and cloth treated with fireproofing. It is blown into attic spaces and wall cavities. More expensive than fiberglass and requiring more equipment to install, cellulose provides more consistent coverage, as it can be blown into odd-shaped spaces in the attic or walls.

What R-value?
All forms of home insulation share a common rating method called R-value. A higher R-value means the insulation is more resistant to heat flow, and this increases the energy efficiency of your home. The insulating capacity of  fiberglass batts and loose-fill cellulose is expressed as the R-value per inch. Fiberglass batts have an R-value per inch of 3.14, while cellulose has an R-value of about 3.7.

How much?
The Department of Energy has established standards for the level of insulation based on climate zone. In Cincinnati, the DOE recommends an R-value of 49 in the attic and 18 in wall cavities. This translates to at least 15 inches of fiberglass or 13 inches of cellulose in an attic and 5.7 inches of fiberglass or 4.8 inches of cellulose in walls.

Apollo Home Heating, Cooling & Plumbing is local and has been family-owned for more than 100 years. We serve Cincinnati and surrounding communities with quality products and superior customer service. Contact us about saving energy and improving insulation in your Cincinnati-area home.

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- Randy B.
"We scheduled an estimate AND a tune-up. We knew something was wrong with our furnace, but hoped we could make it through the rest of the season. Upon telling Bill what our furnace was doing, he warned us immediately what the possible outcome was going to be; a cracked heat exchanger. He watched the flames roll backward, tested carbon monoxide levels, which were so high they meter’s last reading was 5,600 before saying “high”. He immediately shut it down, tagged it, and explained that with levels that high and children in our home he wanted off right away. He continued his inspection and showed us via a camera that not only was it cracked in multiple places, but had holes all over it. He gave us a few options for repairing it; his knowledge as well as genuine concern was beneficial and refreshing. Luckily we also scheduled an estimator, Micah, to come too and we were able to get costs between repairing and replacing (with several options). We decided to replace with a much higher efficiency furnace and one sized properly to our home. Hands down, not only did they both provide us great service and knowledge, but without sounding dramatic, they may have saved our lives. This was our first time calling Apollo, but it won’t be our last."
- Sarah B.
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