Radiant Barriers

If you haven’t heard of a radiant barrier before, it can be difficult to understand its value. To better understand what radiant barriers do, it’s important to know how heat travels. Conduction, convection and radiation are the methods by which heat travels from a warm location to a cooler one.

Conduction works by transferring heat from a hotter location through a material into a cooler location, similar to the way heat travels from a hot pot of soup through a metal spoon and into your hand.

Convection occurs when a liquid or gas heats up, loses density, and rises, later falling as it cools.

Radiant heat will warm anything solid that can absorb its energy.

Most insulation materials reduce only conductive and convective heat flow, but not radiant. Since the sun’s rays are primarily responsible for heating up your roof, a radiant barrier helps cool it down by reducing the radiant heat transfer from the roof to the inside of your attic.

Radiant barriers are generally most effective in hotter climates — which makes them a great option to combat the Texas heat — and particularly in attics containing cooling air ducts.

Now that you understand a little about about the science behind heat transfer, it’s time to get into what really matters — what does a radiant barrier do for your home?
Here are just some of the benefits you’ll experience when you install radiant heating with a trusted and proven roofing contractor like Hometown Roofing: