Save Big With Crawl Space Insulation

Save Money With Crawl Space Insulation
Did you know that a typical crawl space can generate anywhere from ten (10) to twelve (12) gallons of water every day? As weve discussed here many times, we know that through the Mold Mildew Stack Effect that water and humidity that lives in the crawl space rise to the rest of the home just as hot air rises. As this mold and mildew invade your home it can flourish in heating and air conditioning vents, behind walls and beneath rugs or around leaks and can have severe health ramifications including respiratory and asthma-related ailments, exacerbate allergies and even cause lung damage. Moreover, this moist air that rises to the rest of the home is more complicated to heat or cool and thus requires more energy. Therefore, how can insulating a vented a crawl space not simply lower the possibilities of mold and mildew penetration but in the long run save you money and lower heating and electric bills? The Advance Energy released a case study some years ago: In one Advanced Energy study, the institution conducted experiments with 12 similarly built new houses in a Habitat for Humanity subdivision. Some of the homes possessed vented dirt crawl spaces, while others were sealed. By sub-metering the heat pumps, they realized that the houses with the vented dirt crawl spaces were $28 more to cool or heat in a single month! Here are two primary reasons why:A.) In the winter months, cold air permeates the crawl space via vents and makes it much harder to warm a home.
I.) In the summer months when humidity from the moist air outside enters the crawl space it amplifies the amount of humidity being released to the rest of the home.Controlling the airflow through a crawl space is the key to increasing energy efficiency in a home. Coating the walls and floors with a 20-mil vapor barrier and enclosing crawl space vents prohibits vapors from entering the crawl space and greatly decreases humidity transferring through the sub flooring or foundation walls. The crawl space can now preserve steady temperature and moisture readings despite any extreme outside conditions. Ultimately this saves you money on heating and cooling and consumes minimal energy.

President of Your Crawl Space, Inc (http://yourcrawlspace.com). I have spent two decades in the construction industry and after several years realized that there had to be something to do about the humidity and mold related issues that afflicted many crawl space environments. From this insight I created the the Do It Yourself Crawl Space System and Patented Your Crawl Space Installation for encapsulating any crawl space environment.