Most people think of insulation as a winter thing. It holds heat inside so your energy bills don’t spike every time it gets cold out. Fewer people realize insulation is doing the same job in reverse all summer, keeping heat from working its way inside.
Every summer, homeowners across Rockland, Westchester, and Orange County call us because their upstairs turns into an oven by mid-afternoon, and their cooling bills climb right along with it. We’ve helped improve more than 2,500 homes since 2013 with insulation and air sealing upgrades and performed over 5,000 home energy audits, so this is a pattern we see constantly. Here’s what’s going on, and how our building science-driven insulation and air sealing services can help.
How Insulation Works in the Summer
Heat always moves toward the cooler space it can find. In winter, that means the warm air inside your home is constantly trying to escape outside. In summer, that direction flips. Heat from the hot air outside, plus direct sun beating down on your roof, pushes toward the cooler air inside.
Insulation slows that movement down. It acts as a barrier that makes it harder for heat to pass through your attic, walls, and floors, no matter which direction it’s trying to go.
Insulation alone doesn’t stop summer heat completely. Gaps around recessed lighting, attic hatches, plumbing chases, and top plates let hot air slip right past your insulation and into your living space. Air sealing closes off those paths so hot air can’t bypass the insulation.
Attics regularly get far hotter than the outdoor air on a sunny afternoon, and your second floor sits right underneath all that heat. Attic insulation and air sealing usually play the biggest factor in how hot those upstairs rooms get.
Insulation and Air Sealing Keep Working Long After Installation
Insulation and air sealing don’t have moving parts. Once they’re installed correctly, they keep doing their job in every season, with none of the maintenance, filters, or replacement cycles mechanical equipment needs. The same upgrade that keeps heat out in summer keeps it in during winter, handling both at once.
If you’re deciding where to start on home improvements, insulation and air sealing give you a project with year round benefit from one investment.
Signs Your Insulation Isn’t Keeping Up With Summer Heat
A few signs tend to show up when a home’s insulation needs an upgrade:
- A second floor or certain rooms feel noticeably hotter than the rest of the house by afternoon, especially on hot days
- The air conditioner runs for long stretches without the house actually feeling cooler
- Ceilings or walls feel warm to the touch on a hot day
- Energy bills climb during the hottest months even though the thermostat setting hasn’t changed
Why the Right Fix Depends on How New Insulation Is Installed
How much heat gets into a home varies quite a bit from house to house. Some homes have plenty of attic insulation but enough air leaks that hot air gets in anyway. Others have very little insulation and hardly any leaks at all. The right combination depends on where heat is actually getting into your specific home.
This is why how the work gets installed matters just as much as what gets installed. Insulation that’s poorly installed performs far below its rating, regardless of how good the material is. THis is one of the things that makes Energy Evolution different. We use our building science training and thermal imaging to see exactly where heat is moving through your home before we recommend any work, so the fix matches the actual problem.
We work with spray foam, cellulose, and fiberglass, and we’re well known locally for spray foam work in older homes. Matching the right material to the right part of your home is a big part of getting a result that lasts.
We’ll Find Where Your Home Is Taking On Heat
During an energy audit (which can be free through the NYSERDA program), we look at how your specific home performs against summer heat. That means using thermal imaging to find exactly where your attic and walls are letting heat in, and how much of your current insulation is actually doing its job. The result is a plan built around what your home needs.
Keeping a home cool in summer starts with slowing down how much heat gets in, so the air conditioner isn’t doing all the work by itself. At Energy Evolution, we work with homeowners from Spring Valley to White Plains to find exactly where a home is taking on summer heat, then fix it with insulation and air sealing built around how that specific house is put together.
Plus, many homeowners in our service area also qualify for NYSERDA rebates on this kind of work. The Comfort Home program has no income requirements and savings start around $2,500, while EmPower+ can provide much more for households that qualify by income.