What is your experience with an RB ?? Considering installing one...Who do your recommend for the install. What to avoid , etc. Thanks

I've heard that if you are going to do it, do it right and avoid the spray on radiant barrier. Go with the kind that actually needs to be installed and you gain the most energy savings (I believe the stats. are something like spray spray-on blocks 30% while the true radiant barrier blocks up to 90%).

I've heard nothing but good things about it. Up to 30% savings...

Results and available products vary widely. Research is a must. Good ones do indeed reduce the attic temps. Savings is very individual and may be much less than advertised.

Feel free to email me and I will share what I know.

Kevin Weiss
http://www.absoluteinspections.net

there is a great thread on the outdoors board about radiant barriers....you'll have to dig it up.

My best friend is pretty high up with Efficient Attic. He said the installed RB is better than the spray, BUT the install costs so much if you aren't replacing your roof/building a new house that you won't recoup your costs.

If you are building a new home or having your roof replaced, have the RB tiles installed. If you aren't doing either but want to increase your efficiency, spray in.

That is info from several years ago, take it for what it is worth and assume some bias.

I had radiant barrier installed from texas fire shield. They stapled it to the bottom of the rafters and did a good job. We'll see what the savings are after this summer. I got several quotes, talked with many vendors, and the prices vary a lot. There is a 30% up to $500 credit for materials in this tax year.

Foil is a RB. Spray doesn't qualify. It's actually a 60% block on Radiant heat on average.

Foil is 90%+

The only pro to spray is that it's easier to install if you are DIY.


New Contruction-TechShield is good but if you get iconene, you don't need TechShield or Foil because that acts as an insulator as well as blocking almost 100% of Radiant heat.

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What is your experience with an RB ?? Considering installing one...Who do your recommend for the install. What to avoid , etc. Thanks

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Start with insulation and sealing your home first. RBs do work but if you've got a leaky house you're are just putting make-up on a pig. EAS is giving away RBs with insulation in some of their monthly deals. Which should tell you something.

Also look at an energy audit prior to installing any upgrades. That is the best way to determine the paybacks on the energy efficient investments.

Look at EAS, SRE and Cooler House locally. SRE is aggie owned. EAS has some ags working there.

I would agree with Green about some other upgrade choices being a better place to start.

If your interested in seeing where you are missing insulation, I can come out and do and Infrared Scan for you. It will show you exactly where the air infiltration and insulation problems are. A lot depends on the age of your house, there may be other upgrades that will give you more bang for your buck on your bills than RB, even though RB does make your attic cooler

Back to the RB. I bought some of the foil last year and started to install it. Installation in my attic turned out to be complete beating and I have yet to finish. For my particular roof, I decided that the paint would be a better choice. While the best paint is only 75% efficient, it is pretty easy to get close to 100% coverage. While the foil I got is supposed to be 95% efficient, my roof design and access is going to make coverage hard and even best case there are going to be a lot of gaps. I have a strong feeling that it would end up being a wash in the end between the two on final efficiency - but the paint would be soooo much easier.

Kevin Weiss
http://www.absoluteinspections.net

[This message has been edited by Absolute (edited 5/17/2009 11:11a).]

[This message has been edited by Absolute (edited 5/17/2009 11:13a).]