Insulation is this something you should be worried about in this video. I want to to share five tips five things that i think will help you maybe make a and maybe guide you through your next heating and air project depending on your situation so let's dive right into it number one does it make sense to re insulate your ductwork. So. If your ductwork you've got ductwork and the insulation has seen better days.

We just had a customer a couple days ago at griffonair that they called us out and duct work is fine not blowing air into the crawl space. But the insulation itself has just seen better days it's like crumbling. There's certain parts of it that you can actually see the duct itself. There's no insulation in that little spot.

And it's just seen better days and the customer had asked us to give them a price to re insulate to remove that insulation and to replace it and put all new insulation on there on the ductwork that's there i might surprise you i think my answer to this question does it makes sense to re insulate the ductwork in a lot of cases not all cases. But in a lot of cases. It does not make sense to re insulate that ductwork and what do i mean by that well i mean the labor. I got to send guys under there to remove all that insulation to put it all back on there new.

All the extra work to just kind of do all of that in a lot of cases. You might as well just replace it all all the ductwork itself now i'm sure your local contractor. He may disagree and you should probably follow what he says. But in a lot of situations that i've been in i explained to the customer.

The extra work and having to deal with all that when in reality. We could just rip all that stuff out my guys can insulate the new ductwork and install it especially if it's like flex duct. It's already insulated right out of the bag anyway so in a lot of cases. It does not make sense to re insulate that ductwork just replace it all replace it all new it'll be good and sealed if installed properly and it'll be insulated.

Really good number. Two there are different r values meaning. The higher the r value the better. It is insulated.

So there are different types of insulation. There's bubble wrap there's conventional fiberglass. There's flex duct with an r6 or r8. There's all kinds of different ratings and higher and lower r values.

Keep that in mind with some products. It just depends on how it's installed right so the bubble wrap might be like an r4 or less. But if you install it a certain way with gaps and things like that you can actually increase the r value having that air gap in there do i think you need to have the absolute top r value in all situations no i don't think so but i think there are times. When the minimum is installed by the heating and air company and it could be in like this hot attic.

Where it's basically an oven on top of this house and the ductwork should have as high of an r value as it could. And it doesn't and to piggyback off of that number three is conditioning. The area that the ductwork is in i did a video recently where i talked about different ways you can save money on your utility bills and i talked about things like conditioning your attic and attic fans and encapsulating your crawl space and all these different things where ductwork might run and i was a little surprised about some of the comments and feedback. I was getting on that i was surprised at the reaction of some of the other pros in the industry and some of them saying that it's not a good idea to do some of these things so i would definitely defer to your local contractors.

Every climate is different every market is different every house is different so i would just say keep that in mind get their opinions. But if you have ductwork located in say an addict. We've got addicts here in virginia. That on a hot summer day can get way above 100 degrees.

Some addicts above 150 degrees. And my guys are having to go up there and repair something for somebody and so my gosh we love a conditioned attic. We love that they're trying to save energy and they're trying to condition that attic. But they're also where their duct works run through there they're no longer sitting in that hot oven of an attic.

Some of these addicts. It feels like you could probably crack an egg and fry an egg in that attic. When you're conditioning. It and now that duct is running through there.

It doesn't have quite the abuse on that duct the r value doesn't necessarily have to be as high now on that insulation. So maybe. It is a good idea for you to condition your attic or install. An attic fan solar attic fan so it doesn't steal from your electricity.

Whatever makes the most sense for your home. Number four is this something you can do if you've got insulation that has seen better days. You're wondering can i replace it can i pull it off of there and replace it if i'm the homeowner can i do it. The answer that question is maybe maybe you can do it i'm not a big fan of homeowners doing their own heating and air work.

When it comes to taking covers off of the air handler or furnace or the outdoor unit ac. Or heat pump. I'm not a big fan of that most of my videos. I don't do any diy stuff.

I don't think homeowners should be messing with some of that stuff regardless of i get. These comments. Where guys are like well i save all this money because i do it myself and i think that's great if you're licensed and and you know what you're doing then fine. I'm just not a fan of a lot of homeowners doing that sort of dangerous stuff.

Especially if they don't know what they're doing with something like this replacing the insulation on your ductwork. If it's a small little area you've got just one run. There and you can get your hands on some insulation that is meant for insulating that duct. I would say maybe yeah.

Maybe you can if you're handy enough get in there pull that old damaged insulation off as long as the duct is still in good shape and re wrap that and get it insulated well and then finally number five are there any technologies out there that are going to change. This industry. Yes. There are newer technologies coming out every day in fact.

When i started in this industry. A lot of the technologies or products. That we installed today weren't even available and so we're seeing other duct materials being used we're seeing companies come out with ductwork that's already insulated right out of the box. I've seen a product not long ago.

Where it's going to be kind of click and play where there's not as much fabrication with metal or duct board. Some of these materials are making it to where you know a lot of the things that you're even wondering in this video or we're talking about will be obsolete anyway. So i think that we're going to see more of that i think that there probably will be in the future. Whether it's cost efficient or not i don't know there's a very real possibility that there will be some materials or technologies coming out.

Where you're just gonna be able to almost buy it from a hardware store or walmart. You'll be able to just go right in and buy what you need and almost like an erector set just kind of plug and play. And maybe. We're gonna see more of that sort of stuff so we'll see what are your thoughts are you dealing with some insulation issues in your home.

With the ductwork do you have ductwork that has insulation that's seen better days let me know comment down below. I'm curious what your thoughts are i appreciate you watching hit that subscribe button. We'll see you next time.