Will Vinyl Siding Make Your Home More Energy-Efficient?

Waterproof and sunproof vinyl is an increasingly popular material for siding. This sturdy material creates home siding in a wide array of beautiful and tasteful colors. In addition to giving your home a facelift, vinyl also has the great benefit of improving your home’s energy efficiency. There are several reasons that new siding can boost your home’s energy efficiency.

When it comes to energy efficiency, one of the most important factors is insulation. A lot of your home’s energy bills go towards heating and cooling your home, but it can be very easy for your treated air to leak outside. Think of insulation like a big, cozy coat. It helps trap temperatures inside your home, so it is not as affected by outdoor temperatures.

Most people just think of the stuff inside their walls when they consider insulation. However, the reality is that what you place on the outside of your home also has a huge impact on overall insulating levels. Siding made with vinyl might not be as thick as some other materials, but this material is particularly airtight. It creates a durable seal around your home, keeping your air from escaping.

Insulation is typically measured in R-values. Compared to most other exterior materials, siding made of vinyl is far more efficient. Here are the R-values for most common types of building materials:

Stucco: .40
Fiber cement: 0.37
Brick veneer: 0.44
Stone veneer: 0.11
Basic siding made from vinyl: 0.61
Foam-backed siding made from vinyl: 2+

These decimal points of difference might not seem like a lot, but it can translate to hundreds of dollars in energy savings over time.

Since vinyl helps insulate your home, it keeps you nice and warm in the winter. With poorly insulated walls, your heater or furnace has to run constantly to keep your house warm. Siding helps to trap all this warmth inside the home, cutting back on your energy bills. Since siding is manufactured in a dual layer design, it does a great job of preventing air from leaking through. Furthermore, it can help reflect chilly winds that might make your home even colder.

Just raising your insulation a little with vinyl siding results in roughly $70 of savings for fuel costs per year. If you choose a siding with extra insulation, cost savings can be even more impressive. Overall, the energy savings from getting a siding contractor to install new siding gives you an 80 percent return on your investment.

The insulating effect of vinyl also helps keep a home cool during the summer. In addition to being insulating, vinyl also helps to reflect the sun’s rays. It is coated with a titanium dioxide capstock that deflects UV rays. This keeps warming rays from penetrating vinyl and making a home even hotter.

Another perk of vinyl is that it is water tight. This results in overall less humidity inside of your home. Since high humidity makes air feel warmer than it really is, it has a huge impact on how comfortable your home feels during the summer. You do not have to turn your thermostat settings as low or run your air conditioning as long as you otherwise would. Since air conditioning tends to use even more energy than heaters, this benefit of siding results in big savings for you.

Picking sturdy new siding does more than just impact the energy used to heat and cool your home. It also affects the amount of energy and natural resources used to create the building materials for your home in the first place. Vinyl typically lasts for at least 20 years while still looking great. When vinyl is damaged, the siding is designed to be replaced on a piece by piece basis. This lets you just fix the areas that need it.

By keeping your siding intact for as long as possible, you avoid having to use excess energy to get siding for your home. This results in an overall more eco-friendly experience. If you are concerned with sustainability and want to have a green home, siding can be a reliable and long-lasting material.

As you can see, vinyl siding is an excellent addition to any home. If you are interested in upgrading your home’s siding, Crossover Roofing of Winston-Salem can help. Our highly experienced siding contractor team can assist you with every step of the siding process. For years we have been providing a variety of siding and roofing services to the residents of Winston-Salem. Contact us now to schedule your free estimate.