Though there are many effective approaches to saving energy in your home, insulation is your primary defense against lost efficiency from your heater. Heat passes through ceilings, walls and floors from the warm side of your house to the cold side. It works by slowing this transfer process and keeping heat in during the winter and cool air in during the summer.

A well-insulated house needs less heating and cooling to maintain a comfortable indoor climate, and puts less stress on the furnace. That translates into direct savings for you every month on your energy bill. In this article, we’ll cover the three major types of insulation that you can use; batts and blankets, loose fill and rigid foam.

Batts and Blankets Insulation:

Batts and blankets are precut strips (batts) or flexible rolls (blankets) of fiberglass insulation. Typically, batts are the easiest to handle, but blankets are easier to cut for a perfect fit.

This type of insulation is usually used in unfinished walls, attic floors, crawl spaces and under floors over an unheated basement. Because they’re precut, they work best in homes that are built with standard stud and joist spacing.

Loose Fill Insulation:

Loose fill insulation is comprised of loose fibers or granules of cellulose, rock, wool, fiberglass and other assorted materials. When installed, it’s usually blown into the ceiling and wall cavities using a special blowing machine. Because the insulation material is loose, it’s great at filling tiny nooks and crannies.

This type of insulation works best with walls that are already finished, unfinished attics or any hard to reach location.

Rigid Foam:

Rigid foam insulation is made from expanded or extruded plastic foam that has been formed into hard panels. It’s more expensive, but offers a higher R-value or insulation value per inch than other types of insulation. The R-value is the thickness of an insulation.

This type of insulation is usually used for basement walls (both inside and out), roofs and concrete floors. It’s typically glued in place and then covered with a finishing material like laminate flooring or drywall.

How much insulation you need will depend on the climate where you live and the part of the house you need to insulate. To check a finished exterior wall to see if it has been insulated, remove an outlet cover that’s close to the floor.

Turn off electricity to the outlet and reach into the wall with a coat-hanger wire. See if you can fish out any insulation. If it’s not, you could be saving thousands of dollars every year by installing new insulation.

As a precautionary note, though, before you install insulation, always check your local building codes.

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