With colder temperatures coming, you might be thinking about making some additions that will help your home and your pocketbook get through the winter unscathed. Many people automatically think of drafty places in the home like doorsills or older windows. It’s a great idea to pay attention to these, but insulation actually has a much greater effect.

Rather than a quick draft, poor insulation is like a slow sieve, leaking energy at every surface of your home. Fall is the perfect time to install more insulation in your home.

The first step is to find out how much insulation you actually have. Visit your attic and look at the depth of the insulation there. That can offer you a clue about the quality of the rest of the insulation in your home.

There are also numerous organizations that will come out and do a home energy audit for you. Having an energy audit is a good idea for a number of reasons, including the fact that it will reveal the quality of insulation in hard-to-check places like inside your walls.

These days, you’ve got several options for home insulation. Most people think of giant rolls of pink, and these rolls or batts are still readily available. Made of fiberglass or rock wool, they are easy to install and relatively cheap. They are also cut to standard widths to fit between wall studs or floor joists in the ceiling.

You might also look into professional installation of loose-fill, rigid foam or foam-in-place insulation. Loose-fill insulation can be blown into place, making it useful for odd-shaped places like roofs or ducting where it can be difficult to install other kinds of insulation. Rigid foam can be applied to exterior walls and has a higher R-rating based on thickness.

Each type of insulation is given an R-rating, essentially a measure of how much resistance to heat flow the product has. As you do your research, you’ll quickly learn the R-values of different types of insulation. Remember that these are based on depth as well, and the resistance to heat will change based on how much material you put into your house.

Each region of the country has different recommendations for the amount of insulation you should have, so check with your contractor before proceeding to maximize your investment.

Insulation is one of the most effective ways you can reduce your energy expenditures, offering a much faster return on your investment than other options.

In addition to keeping your home warm in the winter, insulation can keep the heat out in the summer, doubling your investment. Once you’ve completed your renovation, you can cozy up for the winter under the new blanket for your house.

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