[PLUG-TALK] Radiant Barrier - was: What is using electricity?

[Aaron Burt]

On 2017-07-19 11:24, Keith Lofstrom wrote:
<snip>
> Radiant insulation (the online pictures look like fancy
> aluminum foil to me) attached to the bottom of the
> rafters makes sense ... except! ... how do you inspect
> the underside of the roof decking for leaks and stains
> and rot?  This is Oregon, after all.

Well, I have a relatively sound roof so I didn't worry too much about 
it, but I also took an 80/20 approach: cover the 80% of rafters that are 
most important and most accessible, and don't worry much about the 20%.
I have a split-level, bedrooms are under the "upper attic", living room 
and kitchen are under the "lower attic."  So I covered the top 4 feet of 
both sides of the upper attic's rafters (with 6" air gap at the top) and 
just the West face of the lower attic's rafters.

I'd staple up radiant barrier on South- and West-facing rafters over 
living spaces only, where the decking looks OK.  It's cheap-ish, so just 
plan to tear it down if you ever have to inspect something.

Oh, and use the 24" wide rolls, the 48" wide ones make it a 2-person 
job.

And never mind the fiberglass batts.  Mine were installed upside-down on 
top of old compressed cellulose fill.  That's gonna be fun to fix.