A Crawl Space That’s Inefficient Means Heat Has Access To Your Home

Your crawl space plays a big role in the energy efficiency of your home. During the Tampa Bay summers, warm, humid air can accumulate easily, especially if it is drawn in through foundation vents. The trapped heat rises through your floors and into your living space, meaning your cooling system has to work that much harder.

Humidity can also accumulate to form a very unhealthy environment, conducive to mold, bacteria growth and pest infestation. Mold spores can rise into your home, reducing indoor air quality, and grow in your crawl space, leading to structural degradation.

Increasing your crawl space’s efficiency can generate energy savings as well as a healthier indoor environment.

Crawl spaces may be ventilated or unventilated. Many professionals recommend that crawl spaces remain unventilated or that homeowners close the crawl space’s vents after initial construction. This is largely because of potential problems caused by indrawn heat and moisture. However, ventilation also has benefits, such as radon mitigation.

How your space should be insulated depends on whether it is ventilated. In a ventilated space, many homeowners choose to insulate the subfloor to prevent the heat from rising into the living space. In unventilated spaces, sealing and insulating the foundation walls is a better idea than insulating the subfloor.

By sealing and insulation in an unventilated space, you can:

• Avoid problems associated with ventilation, such as heat and moisture gain.
• Require less insulation.
• Render air sealing unnecessary between the space and the house itself, as the space doesn’t take on as much heat.

Insulating an unventilated space does come with challenges, too. An alternate radon mitigation system will be required, for instance. And the space must be airtight and include an air barrier. To preserve the integrity of the insulation and barriers, the access door should be in the subfloor, not the perimeter of the space. If it’s in the perimeter, it should also be airtight.

If you have questions about preventing heat gain through your crawl space, please contact Simpson Air in Tampa, Florida. Our HVAC technicians can inspect your space and offer recommendations for your home.