5 Insulation Tips to Save Money and Energy

Upgrading your insulation is one of the best ways to improve your home’s energy efficiency and lower your heating and cooling costs. But if you want your new insulation to provide maximum savings, you can’t just throw a few fiberglass batts into your attic and call it a day—you need a strategy. 

To get the most out of your new insulation, follow these five tips from Greencat, the home performance expert Californians trust for insulation services. 

1. Decide Whether You Actually Need More Insulation 

Our first tip is to make sure you really need more insulation. This may seem obvious, but home performance is complicated, and oftentimes, what seems like a problem with one system in your home is actually being caused by another. 

Start your investigation in your attic. This is the most important area to insulate and one of the easiest places to see whether you have insulation (looking inside walls is trickier). If there’s nothing there, or if the insulation looks dirty or compressed, you probably need more. Other signs, like cold floors, drafts, and inconsistent temperatures throughout your home, can indicate the need for new insulation. Greencat can confirm whether a lack of insulation is the problem with a comprehensive energy assessment. 

2. Remove Your Existing Insulation 

If you have some insulation in place, but it’s not performing as well as you would like it to, you’ll probably need to schedule insulation removal and replacement. 

Sometimes, the existing insulation is perfectly fine but there just isn’t enough of it, and in those cases, you can simply add new insulation on top. But more often than not, insulation stops working because it’s damaged. Dirt, moisture, and pest infestations can all render your insulation ineffective. At Greencat, we’ll do everything we can to salvage your existing insulation, but if it can’t be reused, we’ll remove and dispose of it safely. 

3. Figure Out What Type of Insulation to Use 

When having new insulation installed, it’s important to choose the material carefully. There are many different types of insulation, including: 

• Spray foam insulation

• Loose-fill and blown-in cellulose insulation 

• Loose-fill and blown-in fiberglass insulation 

• Rigid foam board insulation

• Fiberglass batt insulation 

Every home is different, so it’s hard to say what type of insulation you should install without inspecting your home. Generally speaking, however, spray foam insulation is best for attic rafters, exterior walls, crawl spaces, and anywhere that requires air sealing. Loose-fill insulation can be used for attic floors, and blown-in insulation is ideal for walls. 

4. Decide Where You Should Insulate in Your Home

There are several places in your home that need to be air sealed and insulated. For maximum comfort, efficiency, and energy savings, you should install: 

• Attic insulation

• Basement or crawlspace insulation 

• Exterior wall insulation

Greencat can help you decide what areas in your home would benefit most from new insulation. 

5. Hire a Professional Insulation Contractor

There are many home improvement projects that can be easily DIYed, but insulation installation is not one of them. Without the proper equipment for evaluating your home’s performance, you’ll be guessing where your new insulation should go and how much of it you need. And, if the insulation isn’t installed correctly, it won’t work properly, leaving you right back where you started. It’s worth hiring a professional to get the job done right. 

Schedule an Insulation Upgrade With Greencat 

Greencat is a leading whole-home performance contractor that serves homeowners in Los Angeles, Orange County, Western Riverside County, Western San Bernardino County, and throughout all of California. We take a whole-home approach to energy efficiency and use building science to help our customers make impactful home improvements. 

Save money and energy with new insulation. Call 323-208-9071 or contact us here to get a quote for your insulation installation.