Upgrading Home Insulation in Ottawa will Increase Home Comfort in Winter

February 04, 2019

In a region like Ottawa, upgrading your home insulation can make a big difference in comfort during the cold winter months. Needless to say, having good home insulation in Ottawa is simply vital. This is a region where winter is extremely snowy and exceptionally frigid.

Without effective insulation, your home will be uncomfortable and inefficient. You’ll be wasting valuable energy, your heating bills will be high, and your comfort will be compromised. The good news comes with upgrading or retrofitting the existing insulation in your home.

Upgrading your home insulation will do much more than just improve indoor comfort. Having improved energy efficiency, your heating system will work more efficiently, and energy use will be noticeably reduced. Annual utility savings will practically pay off the upgrades.

Many Good Reasons for Upgrading Your Home Insulation in Ottawa

In winter, your home insulation prevents frigid outdoor air from intruding, while preventing warm indoor air from escaping. In summer, your home insulation prevents the warm air from intruding, while preventing cool indoor air from escaping. When home insulation is deficient or underperforming it’s time to upgrade. For homeowners upgrading or retrofitting home insulation in Ottawa, the benefits are long lasting and money saving.

Insulation is Designed to Help Seal Air Leakage

Effectively sealing air leakage in your building “envelope” ensures that air is not entering or escaping. Insulation is the protective barrier between the inside of your home and the outside of your home. The idea is to reduce heat loss in winter while maintaining proper airflow.

A well sealed home will be more comfortable in winter and summer. There won’t be temperature fluctuations, your furnace will not be overworked, and you’ll waste less energy. In winter, your heating bills will be measurably lower, but without compromising your comfort.

Hard to believe, but effective air sealing also has a way of improving indoor air quality when coupled with ventilation measures. A well sealed home manages airflow better and controls air moisture better. Overall, air circulation is improved, and air pollutants are minimized as they circulate in your ducting system.

Good Insulation Helps Lower Energy Bills

Good insulation is the most cost effective way to create energy efficiency in your home. With benefits in winter and summer, a well insulated home can help save more than 30% in heating and cooling costs. Investing in good quality insulation will pay off for years to come.

Getting a professional home energy assessment is a good start before doing any insulation work. In this way, problem areas can be rightly identified, and recommendations can be made for the right product and installation. The idea is to retrofit for the best return-on-investment.

Good insulation prevents indoor heat from escaping in winter, while preventing the outdoor heat from intruding in summer. If you intend to upgrade your home insulation in Ottawa, you’ll be improving energy efficiency, enhancing home comfort, and saving money on utilities.

Reduce Energy Waste with Good Insulation

Across Canada, energy prices are on the rise, particularly during our extreme winters. The best way to reduce those costs is to waste less energy and consume less energy – and the best way to do that is with good quality insulation. This is where product and application is key.

Proper air sealing and quality insulation are essential in reducing heating bills (and cooling bills in summer). This is especially true in an older home where insulation may have deteriorated and lost its performance integrity. Here, retrofitting or reinstallation is the best approach.

In reducing energy waste and optimizing consumption, a professional home energy expert can be very valuable. With a thorough home energy assessment, it’s easy to identify inefficiencies that contribute to high utility bills. More than that, effective remedies can be implemented.

Better Indoor Air Quality with Proper Insulation

With a high quality insulation product, and a professional installation, indoor air quality can be measurably improved. Insulation alone might not bring better air quality, but the objective is to create a “system” where air sealing, insulation and ventilation all work together to ensure that indoor air circulation is as clean as possible.

With appropriate insulation, your home is better protected from outside allergens, contaminants and pollutants. The result is better indoor air quality. Along with a proper air barrier, good insulation prevents common contaminants from intruding. This is especially true in the case of a bonus room above a garage, where harmful fumes can leak up and into the air you breathe.

A high quality insulation product will greatly reduce airborne contaminants coming into the home. By minimizing airflow and preventing moisture movement the insulation acts as a barrier. An additional benefit is that the HVAC system has much less work to do filtering the air. You should always consult with a Registered Energy Advisor when you are performing large insulation retrofits.

Insulation Will Improve Home Comfort

When insulation is performing at peak, home comfort is consistent from season to season. There aren’t any hot spots or cold spots, and there aren’t any uncomfortable areas of the home. As well, there aren’t strange temperature fluctuations – there is consistent comfort throughout.

A well insulated home controls airborne moisture and indoor humidity – both of which are cause for discomfort. With good insulation from attic to basement, consistent comfort is assured in the dry winter and humid summer. In fact, respiratory related issues are also diminished.

If your home insulation is aging and underperforming, indoor comfort will be noticeably affected. It’s the right time to retrofit or replace your insulation, and restore indoor comfort. Homeowners who upgrade their home insulation in Ottawa will notice the benefits immediately.

Insulation Helps to Prevent Ice Damming

Ice dams build up around your roofline because heat is escaping from inside the home. When heat rises out of the attic and roof, the freezing/melting cycle of winter snow is perpetuated. Air sealing the attic is effective, but must be couple with insulation upgrades to make the biggest difference.

Before winter, it’s wise to check your attic insulation to ensure that R-Values are at an optimum level. Without the necessary thermal protection, snow on your roof will melt and freeze in a cycle that crates ice damming. Though this cannot be entirely prevented, it is the increased rate that it happens that can be lessened with the right insulation upgrade.

With a home energy expert on hand, the right insulation product can be recommended in order to prevent ice damming. Whatever the product (batts, blown in, and/or spray foam) R-Values can be brought up to code, and thermal protection can help prevent ice dams from amassing.

Window Insulation Makes a Difference

When windows are well insulated, air leakage is prevented - indoor heat cannot escape in winter and outdoor heat cannot intrude in summer. Here, a weatherproofing approach may provide the short-term relief, but a professional window retrofit will provide the long-term solution.

Whatever insulating approach is employed, the idea is to better insulate the home and provide improved indoor comfort in summer and winter. Poorly insulated windows compromise indoor comfort, waste energy, and cause your heating and cooling bills to be higher than need be.

We are able to provide you with all of the same great benefits as new windows without expensive replacements. Our secret: Magnetite window insulation panels. The best part about these panels is that you will only know they are there because of the added comfort. Don’t sacrifice the look of your home for uncharismatic windows when you don’t need to.

In some homes, poorly insulated windows can be a serious problem. Improving the insulation is both cost effective and inexpensive. It’s a solution that will significantly improve home comfort, reduce energy waste in summer and winter, and markedly decrease monthly utility bills.

If You’re Upgrading Home Insulation in Ottawa, Count on Insultech – A Division of Great Northern Insulation

If you’re looking around for home insulation in Ottawa, you can count on the professionals at Insultech – A Division of Great Northern Insulation. We provide you with highly experienced installers who are trained and certified. We install only high quality products and guarantee every project, regardless of size.

As a company division of Great Northern Insulation, we make every effort to do it right the first time. We do everything according to the building code and customers’ needs. We also offer the manufacturer’s warranty on everything installed. Above all, we ensure 100% customer satisfaction every time.

When it’s time to upgrade your insulation, call one of our home energy specialists at 1-800-265-1914 and find out more about our services. We can arrange a FREE home energy assessment, at which time we’ll evaluate your specific needs and recommend viable solutions.

With Insultech and Great Northern Insulation you’re assured of 100% satisfaction. We encourage you to shop around and compare service providers but we’re confident that our quality approach is unmatched in the industry. We pride ourselves on doing it right the first time.

For more information about all of our other home energy services in Ottawa, visit the company website at https://www.gni.ca/location/eastern-ontario-insulation-ottawa