Insulating a 1.5-story home

Structure Talk

Today we will talk about ways to improve home performance by installing proper insulation.

Tessa shares that there are more ways to insulate a house and discusses how to better insulate and improve home performance. She defines pressure boundaries and thermal boundaries. Bill shares that ''project overcoat'' adds years of life expectancy to a 1.5-story house. He explains that having a perfect thermal barrier on the roof and everything below that is conditioned space which will create a very comfortable environment.

Reuben talks about another way to improve insulation, by installing it from the inside of the house; it will create a hot roof where there is no ventilation between the shingles and everything else. He also shares that the color of roof shingles has more effect on the temperature of the roof than ventilation does. Tessa agrees that this is a good method; however, homeowners will lose headspace due to lower ceilings. She also talks about another method to address the insulation by attacking the areas that are physically accessible. Bill shares that the best method is addressing it from the outside.

They talk about the holistic approach and look at a building as an entire system. Tessa highlights that the building performance depends on the design, the materials that are used, how materials are put together, and occupant behavior. She further mentions that the simpler the design is, the better and easier it is to have a high-performing house.

Learn more about Project Overcoat. Visit this link https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy13osti/56145.pdf.