Radiance
By: Amanda Campbell
Updated: August 13, 2010
From the most extreme heat to the most extreme cold, keeping your family comfortable at home can send your heating and cooling bills through the roof. One of the best ways to keep your home comfortable is to make sure the attic is properly insulated.
If you are looking for a great way to keep your utility bills down and at the same time keep your home comfortable both in the winter and summer, there is a radiant barrier product out on the market that is truly unbelievable. It’s called “Radiance”, and it's made by a company called Chemrex.
Radiance "low-E" attic and decking radiant barrier is applied like paint onto plywood decks, properly prepared metal or masonry surfaces. It’s a coating which slows your home's heat loss in the winter and slows heat gains in the summer. Radiance contains microscopic reflective particles suspended in an infrared transparent binder matrix. In the winter more than 50% of your home's radiant heat, which would normally escape, is reflected back, slowing the loss of heat from the building. In the summer, Radiance reflects 50% of the sun's infrared energy from your home, keeping the home and its occupants cooler and more comfortable.
Radiance costs around $40 per gallon. One gallon will cover about 500 square feet. You can find it in some home centers. You can contact the company to find out where it is available in your area.
It could be a do-it-yourself job. But it might be a good idea to hire a insulation contractor to do it for you.
