LESLIE: Alright. Wayne needs some help with those energy-savings rumors that are going on out there with those tax credits. What can we do for you?
WAYNE: Yeah, hi. You know, I’ve got a one-story house and I have a bonus room upstairs and it is significantly hotter than the rest of the house, so we don’t really get to use it as a bonus. And I’ve been calling around to these radiant barrier places down here in Dallas and they claim that they can lower my attic temperature up to 20 to 30 degrees and they can save me up to 30 to 40 percent on my electricity bills and I just don’t know what to do. I’ve heard of the spray-on kind; I’ve heard of the roll-on kind. Do you guys have any suggestions to – or anywhere I can go to back up these claims?
TOM: I think in your part of the country, applying a high-efficiency, radiant barrier makes sense. There are spray kinds that work; there are sheet products that work. I do think that a lot of the installers tend to overestimate what the potentials savings are but nonetheless, I do think that you will experience some savings.
There are some do-it-yourself products out there but usually it requires some advanced equipment, like spray guns and things like that, so you probably are going to want to work with a contractor. So I would decide which way you want to go and then I would research the quality of the contractor. Talk to some folks that perhaps they did this same project with last summer and see what kind of savings they had and make your decision based on that.
WAYNE: So you guys believe that it does help in some way, then?
TOM: I do believe it will save.
LESLIE: (overlapping voices) Oh absolutely.
TOM: It definitely will lower your cooling costs.
WAYNE: Alright. Well, thanks very much.
TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
Leave a Reply