IES – Radiant Barrier – What They Are
We all have trouble with keeping the temperatures in our home at a comfortable level. During the summer the house can get uncomfortably hot and we will do our best to get the temperature down. The solution that most people turn to is air conditioning. We turn on the A/C on full blast and keep it running all day without pause. Even if we do not look at the harmful effect this has on our environment the fact is that this can become very expensive. The air conditioning uses up a lot of energy and we have to pay for using this energy. So what can you do to reduce the temperature in your home with the need to break the bank? The answer is installing a radiant barrier. In this article we will find out what a radiant barrier is.
Let’s take a look at how heat travels. There are two main ways that heat travels and they are conduction and radiation. Physical contact helps heat travel from a hot object to a relatively cooler object. This is known as conduction. You do not need to touch an object to know that it is hot. If you have ever stood near a bonfire you know what I mean. The heat that reaches you from the born fire is being radiated.
Since your house is not touching the sun most of the heat that enters your home is in the form of radiant heat. A radiant barrier is a barrier that stops this heat from entering your home. It bounces off radiant heat and in this way helps keep the temperature down. In this way you are taking preemptive action and are stopping the heat from entering your house instead of using the air conditioning to reduce the temperature after the heat has entered.
