Are you doing a re-roofing project, and you’re wondering if you can skip insulating the roof to save on materials? Are you wondering if it is a legal requirement? You’ve come to the right place, for we have researched this question, and we have the answer for you.
Most states in the US do not require roof insulation in their local building code. However, ceiling insulation is a constant requirement across the different state and municipal building codes for residential buildings.
Learn more about the insulation in your house, why it is important, and why your state is concerned with the amount of insulation you have in your home.
Read on!
Why insulation is important?
Think of your home as two houses in one.
The first house is the visible house that you see. It is made up of the walls, roof, and floors that you paint, clean, and decorate. It is the house that protects you from visible weather like rain, snow, wind, and too much sunlight.
The second house is the invisible one, yet just as important. It is hidden behind walls, under the floors, or up in the attic. It is the house that protects you from the invisible elements of the weather, extreme heat, or extreme cold.
The second house is insulation. It is an encasement layer that provides your house with the ability to stop the movement of heat to and from your house. Without insulation, heat can freely move in and out of your house, whether you want to or not.
Insulation is what keeps you in control of heat and its movement inside your house.
What is heat transfer?
Heat transfer is like pouring water from a bottle of water into an empty glass.
If you go to a swimming pool and submerge the water bottle in the pool, do you think the water in the bottle will flow out? It will not because it is surrounded in all directions by lots of water.
Similarly, heat always moves from an area or object where there is a lot of heat to an area or object with less heat.
When you touch a hot cup of coffee, your fingers will also feel warm after some time. This is because the cup of coffee is hotter than your hands. Thus, heat will move from the cup to your hands.
When you touch a glass of ice-cold water, your hands will become cold too. Since your hand is warmer than the glass, the heat from your hands will move from your hands to the glass.
Heat in the environment behaves the same way.
What is a thermal envelope?
A thermal envelope is a cover or shroud around an object or area that prevents heat transfer.
We place cold beers in a cooler during camping because the cooler has a thermal envelope that prevents the heat outside from moving in to heat the beers.
What is a building’s thermal envelope?
Building a house that is comfortable to live in requires a thermal envelope. This will prevent too much heat outside from getting inside the house. It will also prevent the warm air inside the house from escaping outside when the weather is very cold.
The thermal envelope for a house works in the same way as a cooler. It creates a barrier against the transfer of heat to and from your house. It isolates the living areas of the house so that environmental conditions will not affect it.
The thermal envelope of your house is the same as the invisible house. It is made up of the insulation in your walls, doors, windows, and roof.
To create an ideal thermal envelope for your house, you need to install the right level of insulation on the walls, basement, and ceiling or roof.
What are the effects of insufficient insulation?
A high energy bill is the most common effect of insufficient insulation. This is also one of the reasons why state governments have building codes that have minimum insulation for both walls and ceilings.
Aside from keeping its citizens safe, it is also in the best interest of your state to lower your energy bill because this equates to lower energy consumption on your end. If there is a widespread drop in the energy consumption of its citizens, then the state doesn’t need to produce too much energy. This is a good thing for the environment.
Less energy consumption also reduces the environmental impact of energy usage and production.
If you skip the installation of insulation in your roof or ceiling, you get one-time money savings. However, the long-term effect is that you get higher monthly energy bills. And depending on how long you’d decide to keep your house that way, that higher monthly energy bill will add up and offset whatever savings you had from skipping roof insulation.
Frequent HVAC Maintenance And Repairs
If your house doesn’t have sufficient insulation, your HVAC system will have to work twice as hard. This leads to HVAC parts wearing down much faster, and this leads to more repair calls and more expensive maintenance.
An HVAC system that always works twice as hard will also lead to shorter service life. This means that you will need to replace your system much earlier than expected.
Mold And Mildew Problems
Insufficient insulation can lead to humidity and moisture buildup. The frequent presence of moisture in an area will create the ideal environment for mold and mildew to grow. Mold and mildew can lead to health problems.
Hot Or Cold Spots
Improper insulation will create uneven temperatures inside the house, creating hot or cold spots. These are often areas where heat moves in or out of your house.
What is the International Code Council?
The International Code Council is responsible for developing model codes and standards for developing safe and sustainable communities and buildings. It was established in 1994 to develop a single set of standards for national model construction codes.
Its headquarters is in Washington DC.
What is the IECC?
The IECC (International Energy Conservation Code) is a residential and commercial energy model code. It establishes the minimum requirements for the construction of energy-efficient buildings. This is the code that is used as a reference for state and municipal building codes.
The code is updated regularly to include proposals from code enforcement officials, design professionals, industry representatives, and other parties.
The latest version of the code is the 2021 IECC. State or municipal building codes get updates based on the latest version of the IECC.
What is the USGBC?
Even the private sector is involved in promoting sustainability in the construction and design of residential and commercial structures. The USGBC has rating, verification, and certification programs like LEED. These programs incentivize homes, buildings, schools, communities, and even healthcare for following a sustainable design.
Mike Italiano, David Gottfried, and Rick Fedrizzi founded the US Green Building Council in 1993. The Streamlining Energy Efficiency for Schools Act of 2014 supports the initiatives of the USGBC.
The law not only establishes requirements when it comes to insulating homes but also establishes avenues where compliant buildings like homes will be rewarded and/or recognized.
What is LEED?
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a green building rating system. It is the most widely used rating system in the world. The rating system can apply to all types of buildings.
Should you insulate the underside of your roof?
There is wisdom in insulating the ceiling instead of the roof. Unless you use your attic space as a living space like a bedroom, or your house does not have a conventional ceiling like a vaulted ceiling, it would make more sense to insulate just the ceiling.
Consider the scenario below.
If you have roof insulation instead of ceiling insulation, then your HVAC will need to cool or warm the attic area. Without any insulation, warm air will be free to move to and from the attic. That is a waste of energy.
Moreover, if the attic is not part of the computation for the capacity of your HVAC unit, then the attic area makes your HVAC underpowered for the task. This will cause your HVAC unit to work extra hard to provide you with cool or warm air.
Working harder also means that you will get high energy bills because your HVAC will have to stay on longer to cool or heat the attic space.
Thus, it is best to insulate the ceiling than the roof because it reduces the total amount of space that your HVAC needs to cool or warm.
Conclusion
Roof insulation is not a building requirement for houses. However, if you check the building envelope requirements of states like Florida, New York, Texas, Alaska, California, and Montana, they all have insulation requirements for ceilings.
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