Radiant barriers

[KristaTX]

They must be over-hyped. Our house is 2 years old and has a radiant barrier. I just went into the attic to change out the AC filter (and I had the wrong size! ) and it seriously feels like I could bake cookies up there. I've been inside now for about 15 minutes, and I'm still sweating as if I just ran a marathon .

We do have spray-in foam insulation on the "floor" of the attic (over our ceiling), so maybe that holds the heat in more than regular insulation or something .

Off to exchange the AC filter now.

 

[Hercules10]

Is it the silver paint or the foil-covered foam backing on the underside of your roof? Not sure I trust claims of the spray-paint stuff. Just looks like paint.

 

[m&m's mom]

Krista- we just replaced our roof and I asked our roofer friend about the radiant barrier. He did not recommend it. The only specifics he gave were that in the winter is actually hurts your heating. Of course, we around here are more concerned about summer heat than winter cool/cold.

 

[Gina]

We've been toying with the idea of offering radiant barrier installation (I work for an A/C company) but several of my customers have told me that once they had one installed, their cell phone reception became seriously problematic. Has anyone else experienced that?

 

[KristaTX]

Ours isn't the paint kind. It's the foily kind.

In some places in my house my cell phone reception occasionally gets low, but I'm not sure it has to do with the radiant barrier or maybe the foam insulation in the walls and ceiling. Or maybe neither.

 

[Golf4food]

We have one in our two month old brand new house. Cell reception is pretty bad, but the house does stay cool. Our electric bill compared to the old house for the same months last year is a few hundred kilowatt hours lower in usage in the new house. Of course, we also have brand new everything, including low-E windows, extra insulation in the walls and ceiling, etc. The radiant barrier probably helps a little, though. I researched it and decided even any small help would be worth it in the long run. There is a government website with studies related to the energy star program that has a lot of good info on radiant barriers.