Will you post pics? TIA

Do a search for attic tent on craigslist. Some dude in Atlanta is selling them for 60 bucks, as opposed to 200.

Not sure how legit he is, but he claims to sell the same exact product.

I will try maybe over the weekend. Never posted pics before, but I think there is a sticky soemwhere on texags.

I did take some prior pictures last night for my own benefit. Wanted to mark where some of my cable TV/electrical wires run, prior to adding insulation.

I am getting the ladder tent as well. Hopefully it will help in the hallway.

Efficeint Attic Systems quoted me $1800 for a 2500 sq foot house. The Radieant barrier was half off but I had to buy $500 worth of ventilation to get the half off.

I'm cheap and feel the need to punish myself, so I am going to do the foil myself.

Why didn't I do this in the winter?

Give Kool-Attics a call if you are in Houston. They will beat EAS.

Anybody have recommendations for the Dallas area?

HDeathstar,

How did it turn out?

ttt

OK folks is the spray on worth it or do I need to spring for the foil backed?

I'll get my neighbor to tell me how much EAS charged as well as what his next energy bill looks like.

Ok here is how it went.

I got Koolattics to spray radient barrier, add insulation and put in an attic door tent.

Work: The workers were nice enough and I left them alone in the house with no issues that I know of. Left the house clean. I think it took them about 3-4 hours. I had a few issues with getting them out to the house(sick kids), but I under stand that and Mike(owner) mentioned he did not have a lot of crews, but the ones he has, have a lot of experience. I am very happy with the work and it looks like they got good coverage on all the beams and contact points.

Results:
Attic Tent: works great and is well worth it in my opinion. Our hallway is a lot cooler under the door area.

Radient barrier/insulation - Hard to tell right now since we have had some cloudy days since it was installed, but I do believe that the house is cooler than what it used to be. Hottest part of the day, the house does not get that "can't cool it enough" feeling.

All included I think it will be worth it. Do not know how long it will take to recoup, but if the house is able to be kept cooler with a big croud or on a real hot day, it will be worth it to me.

Any Dallas Area recommendation???

ttt

This is kinda convincing...what say you Texags?

what was the cost?

Aggiedruggist,

I think it'd be interesting to see that setup with a layer of shingles, and plywood on top to simulate a real world environment.

Still pretty convincing, though.

I've contacted 3 different companies. Waiting for a reply.

I am going to test something with this. My House faces west. MOST of the son I have hits the Southwest part of the roof, the other side of the roof has shade. I am going to place the foil on one side of the roof and see what happens. Give me a month or so.

Hdeathstar - If it's not too much trouble, would you mind posting the impact on your electric bill ? I'm considering this work, but I've had to deal with so much poor workmanship from electricians, plumbers, A/C guys that I'm a bit suspicious.

I'm getting a quote of $2,800 for spray. My house is 4,300 sq ft 2 stories with vaulted ceilings.

Although I haven't put in the Radiant barrier foil yet, I did the first step anyway.

I had 10 new static roof vents added to vent the attic. Just as they finished - I opened my $600 electric bill from the previous month.

A little background:
Our house used to have a Shake roof and it was asphalt shingled right before we bought it. It only had 2 turbines and NO soffets vents. I added 20+ soffet vents a few weeks after I moved in, but don't think the Turbines could vent it enough.

With the Static Vents in I can already feel the difference. The house CAN ACTUALLY feel cool even though the temperature doesn't really say it is much different.

New AC unit going in this week with better effiency. The old unit was spraying Freon everywhere and was OLD (circa 1980). So I won't be very good for comparisons when I am thru, but will love to NEVER see another $600 electric bill.

Putting Radiant barriers & caulking around where the registers come thru the ceiling/attic sheetrock is next.

Eventually I will bulk up the attic insulation, as most of it seems to have settled A LOT. And yes I know I should have done this step sooner, if not first.

Ok, I got a call from a company who uses foil type of radiant barrier. She said foil will block 95%+ of the heat whereas the best spray on radiant barrier will block about 77%. She's right. In fact, the government rating doesn't even recognize spray on as a radiant barrier.

They will charge approximately $1 per sq ft. And sq ft will be calcuated by measurement circumference of my house (probably 2,500 sq ft since it's a 2 story house) multiplied by the roof pitch factor. I would assume it will be between $3000 to $4000. They're coming out on Thursday for an estimate. She also said I probably won't need extra insulation since with the radiant barrier, it will decrease the attic temperature by 30 to 40 percent.

I'm actually going to install a thermometer in my attic for before and after pictures. I'm doing this as a service to y'all.

quote:

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Ok, I got a call from a company who uses foil type of radiant barrier. She said foil will block 95%+ of the heat whereas the best spray on radiant barrier will block about 77%. She's right. In fact, the government rating doesn't even recognize spray on as a radiant barrier.

---

So the foil lady said her product was better? Whodathunkit?

I had Mike from Kool-Attics come out and quote me for solar screens. Really nice guy. He does the spray - says foils degrades over time.

Well, I actually didn't need the foil lady to convince me...

http://www.blocktheheat.com/radiant.htm

http://www.energyefficientsolutions.com/rbfoilvspaint.asp

http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/academic/environment/alternative-energy/energy-resources/homepower-magazine/archives/28/28p43.txt

http://www.macradiantbarrier.com/paint_vs_foil.php

quote:

---

As per the Department of Energy - a true radiant barrier must have the emittance value of .10 or less. None of the paint products meet these criteria and therefore, are not true "radiant barriers".



Product
Emittance

All MAC Radiant Barrier products (solid aluminum) .03

Radiance E025**
.95 to .23**

Lo/Mit-1
.95 to .23**

Lo/Mit-2
.95 to .23

E-Barrier
.95 to .36

Therma-Guard Silver
.95 to .57

Insuladd-RBC
.95 to .59

Formula A Barrier Coat #85
.95 to .66

Formula B Barrier Coat #85
.95 to .70

Koolcoat
.95 to .86

Barrier Coat #233
.95 to .89

Radiosity 3000
.95 to .89

HeatShield R-20
.95 to .90


**The paint product has emittance of .23 to .90 in lab tests only compared to MAC Radiant Barrier at .03. Even the emittance ratings are questionable because latex paint which encapsulates the aluminum flakes has an emittance of .95. So how can any of the paint products have less than .95 emittance?

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[This message has been edited by AggieDruggist89 (edited 6/30/2008 11:04p).]

Yeah, I had seen a lot of that as well. But what it all boils down to is what does it do for my electric bill? Those numbers do not directly translate to equivalent dollar savings. And as far as that goes, I couldn't give a rat's how the DOE "classifies" things. I'm really interested in seeing HDeathstar's results - although it will be difficult to differentiate how much of any savings was attributed to which change (spray, insulation, and tent)...

You're not interested in seeing my results? I'm hurt...

If it's going to cost me $2800 for spray and $3500 for foil, I'll go with foil.

Nope, sorry - I'm interested in yours as well. I understand the spray is about a third of the cost of foil but I imagine that varies depending on the product and the contractor.

edit: and I'd go with the foil too if that's the price difference.

[This message has been edited by Ag83 (edited 7/1/2008 10:07a).]

I'm interested in seeing your results AggieDruggist89

Oh, who are you using btw?

Here will be the methodology of this study:

Randomized non-blinded no placebo controlled cohort:

I will install a thermometer in the attic and take a reading during a set time. I will also obtain the temperature outside of my house.

I will make some observations..cloud cover etc.

I will do the same after the radiant barrier installation.

Going forward, I will also compare the KW usage to the same period last year.

Haven't decided yet but I'll see them Thursday. I assume the work will be done next week.

I started a DIY install of the foil (from atticfoil.com) on my house this past weekend. The lowest piece next to the insulation can be a PIA depending on your roof pitch. After that, the going is much easier.

You can make good progress by yourself, but it goes MUCH quicker with two people. Dont worry about making it pretty and taking out every wrinkle. Also, those powershot staplers are a big help.

I have been taking attic temp readings and IR-thermometer readings of the A/C at the vents, the ceiling, and the roof decking. I will try to post results when I am completely done, but I dont know when that will be. All I can tell you right now is the surface temp of the foil has been 20+ degrees cooler than the surface temp of the roof decking.

I may wind up DIYing foil myself when it's all said and done, but I sure as hell am not going to do it this summer. I'll just manage as best I can and maybe do it later after it cools down. I'd die up there for sure if I tried it now.

I've been investigating radiant barriers and am considering intalling one in our attic. We have one bedroom that has a long a/c run and a 10-foot ceiling. This room heats up faster than the rest of the house. Do you think it would help to lay radiant barrer foil over the insulation on top of this room as a temporary measure - before I can get around to doing it properly (stapling to rafters) in the whole attic?

ag83, if you can get up there in the early mornings and work for 3-4 hours, just do it now. You can temporarily disconnect one of the A/C ducts and let it blow into the attic. It was 75* up there for the majority of the time I was working.

rcj, I think it would help some if your ducts are underneath it. Honestly though, I would just get up there and staple it. Once you get started, it goes pretty quick.