Green Planet Energy Solutions

Green Planet Energy Solutions provides residential clients with a comprehensive range of services. We tailor our services to each client’s needs. Whether for a single family home or a multi-family unit, neighborhood, commercial, or other group, we can help you determine and implement the most cost-effective means of achieving your energy saving goals.

Radiant Barrier Foil Insulation Tested and Proven

The Florida Solar Energy Center at Cape Canaveral has tested radiant barriers in both small scale laboratory and full scale building models. Their results indicate that radiant barriers provide significant resistance to heat transfer. Current test conducted by the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the University of Mississippi, support the findings at the Florida Solar Energy Center. Northeastern Illinois University conducted winter test in residential and commercial structures using infrared thermograph photography. The photos showed significant resistance to heat transfer over the regular insulation...read more

Radiant Barriers 101

Radiant barriers are installed in homes—usually in attics—primarily to reduce summer heat gain, which helps lower cooling costs. The barriers consist of a highly reflective material that reflects (or more specifically, re-emits) radiant heat rather than absorbing it. They don't, however, reduce heat conduction like thermal insulation materials.

How They Work

Heat travels from a warm area to a cool area by a combination of conduction, convection, and radiation. Heat flows by conduction from a hotter location within a material or assembly to a colder location. Heat transfer by convection occurs when a liquid or gas is heated by a surface, becomes less dense, and rises (natural convection), or when a moving stream of air absorbs heat from a warmer surface (forced convection). Radiant heat travels in a straight line away from any surface and heats anything solid that absorbs the incident energy. Radiant heat transfer occurs because warmer surfaces emit more radiation than cooler surfaces.

When the sun heats a roof, it's primarily the sun's radiant energy that makes the roof hot. A large portion of this heat travels by conduction through the roofing materials to the attic side of the roof. The hot roof material then radiates its gained heat energy onto the cooler attic surfaces, including the air ducts and the attic floor. A radiant barrier reduces the radiant heat transfer from the underside of the roof to the other surfaces in the attic.