DynaGuard™ Radiant Barrier – Put Simply, It’s Brilliant
By now most homeowners are well aware of the importance of properly insulating and sealing air leaks to save home energy costs. Adding insulation in walls and ceilings, caulking gaps around windows and doors are familiar practices. A typical first fix for home energy efficiency in Attics is to increase the mass insulation– fiberglass, cellulose, polystyrene or spray foams – base to achieve higher R-value. These are helpful for separating the heat or cold in your attic from your living space. An important achievable goal is keeping the attic cooler in the summer to lower cooling costs.
DynaGuard is polystyrene insulation with highly reflective films applied to both the front and back. It’s these two bright1 surfaces that help cool your attic by reflecting radiant energy. DynaGuard forms a radiant barrier by using bright polished aluminum surfaces to reflect radiant energy.
Radiant energy is an electromagnetic wave in the infrared light spectrum, and is the principal mechanism of heat transfer from warm surfaces to cooler surfaces – like your attic roof to a bedroom ceiling.
Reflecting radiant energy, to deflect it from your home will reduce heat gain in your attic – keeping it cooler. Think of your attic as a hot box on top of your home. Keeping it cooler means less work for your air conditioner and more energy savings for you, every day.
Our unique design also helps ensure that your attic is well ventilated, by creating an unobstructed duct between the soffit vent (at the eave) and the ridge vent. Positive air flow helps cool the roof deck and can help prolong the life of shingles
Installing a radiant barrier in an attic will provide substantial savings by reducing the cooling load for your air conditioner. How much is substantial? The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that a properly installed radiant barrier system can reduce cooling costs by 2% – 17%2. The savings is achieved by keeping the attic air cooler.
1) Hemispherical Emittance Test performed by R&D Services. Results available upon request.
2) U.S. Department of Energy. Radiant Barrier Attic Fact Sheet, June 14, 2009 https://www.ornl.gov/sci/roofs+walls/radiant/rb_02.html