When I lived in South Carolina, I installed a radiant barrier in the attic and believe it helped, though I sold the house shortly thereafter. Now in WA state (cold climate), I see no use for a radiant barrier in the attic. BUT, the woodstove does put out a lot of radiant heat, and I wonder if it is worth it to have an interior radiant barrier in the wall behind the stove and in the cathedral ceiling above it? The barrier would be installed between the insulation and the drywall, with a 1" air gap as required by the radiant barrier. Both the walls and ceiling are currently open, so it is easy to do. The wall will be either R-19 (fiberglass without radiant barrier) or R-24 (foamboard, with added radiant barrier), and the ceiling R-36 (foamboard, with or without radiant barrier). More R-value in the ceiling would be better, but that is not feasible with what I am working with. Thoughts?
My thoughts are that my shed was built with that plywood that has a radiant barrier on one side. I was very skeptical but it's a lot cooler in there than I thought so apparantly it's working. Like you said it does require an air gap though. If you can install one easily then go for it.
We're talking about keeping the heat on the inside of the house, and not heating for the crows? What's the difference between such a barrier and normal insulation? Sent from my iPhone so pardon any autocorrect bollocks
Radiant barrier - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia In a nutshell, insulation reduces heat conduction, and a radiant barrier reduces heat radiation. Usually a radiant barrier is used in hot climates, to reduce the heat in an attic. I am thinking of doing the opposite, usingin on the inner side, to reduce the heat going out of the house in the area around the woodstove.
Imteresting. On first blush I would guess using the space for added insulation (if that's an option) would be better bang for the buck. I installed some of the radiant material because I got it for free, otherwise I would not have spent the money.
I put in Reflectix radiant barrier over the rigid foam insulation board I installed onto my basement walls. Main reason was I knew I wouldn't get drywall up for years, and wanted a class A fire barrier over the foam (actually required by codes anyway). It was an easy, fast and fairly cheap way to do so. It seems to do a good job reflecting the heat back into the room when the stove is going (I have felt behind the Reflectix and that foamboard is cold when the basement is in the mid 70's). Not sure I would have done it if I was going to get the sheetrock up in a timely manner though. Course, my basement is small (650 sq/ft), so if you have the room to "waste" the air space required, then there is at the least, no harm in doing so. With foam board Foam board covered with Reflectix
