The Big Baked Potato
Dear Suzy,
I live in a two-story townhome that was built in the early Seventies, when
they didn’t know or didn’t care what the words “energy efficient” meant. I have
had the city’s energy audit, and instituted the changes they recommended.
However, the second floor still gets extremely hot. Can you tell me about
radiant barriers? Is this something I can do myself, and if so, how? What would
the cost be for a 1200? – Renee G.
Dear Renee,
The early Seventies? That was about the time of the oil embargo that inspired
my dad, who commutes 120 miles round-trip to Houston five days a week, to buy a
Honda Coupe. Two cylinder. Forty-seven miles to the gallon. The stick shift
came out of the dashboard. The only problem was, he couldn’t fit in it, so I
inherited it. That was a fun car. I would come out from a dance in high school
and could never find the little orange bomb because some group of jocks would
have carried it off and hid it behind a tree. When I moved to Austin, those old
college jokesters would turn it sideways in its parking slip and I would have
to find four or five people to help me turn it around before I could drive off.
But my parents started to worry about my safety in this flyweight vehicle,
which was made out of steel about as thick as radiant barrier (Nice transition
huh? Bet you were wondering how I was going to get back on track with this one)
and I had to trade it in on a brown Chevy Caprice Classic that made me look
like a narc. Beside driving around in radiant barrier, I’ve also installed one.
In fact, I’m writing from my attic at this moment; the outdoor air temp is
around 90 degrees, but me and my laptop are enjoying an idyllic 78 degrees. We
stapled the barrier – which came in big rolls – to the top side of our roof
rafters during construction, letting it drape down between the rafters to
create that all important airspace Since you probably don’t want to tear off
your roof to do it exactly like we did, you’ll have to go up in the attic (home
to spooky things and scurrying varmints), armed with nothing but a stapler and
a pair of scissors, and attach the barrier to the underside of the rafters.
(This technique might also prevent you from slipping off the rafters and
bursting through the foil like a giant kernel of Jiffy Pop and breaking two
ribs on your way down to the ground like I did. It won’t prevent you from
slipping off the ceiling joists and popping through the sheetrock, however.)
If you’re not too frightened by now to attempt this yourself, the cost will
run about 10-20cents a square foot for the material, which can typically block
95 percent of your radiant heat gain. This is an impressive number, but not so
important if your attic isn’t vented and/or your ceiling is super-insulated
(R-30 and higher). But I do guarantee that if you spend a hot afternoon up in
the rafters installing this stuff, your second story will feel like a fridge by
comparison. I think the only way to keep a top floor really cool in a Texas
summer is to move it to Canada.
Move me with your questions. Write me at The Austin Chronicle, PO
Box 49066, Austin, TX 78765 or e-mail me at: Suzebe@aol.com.
This article appears in May 26 • 1995 and May 26 • 1995 (Cover).