Exactly how does radiant barrier foil insulation work?
Simply put, a radiant barrier reduces the transfer of a large percentage of radiant heat in one of two ways: • a radiant barrier REFLECTs a large percentage of radiant heat that strikes it surface across an air space back in the direction from which it came, and • it EMITs a very small percentage of radiant heat from its own surface facing an air space. Noticeably above, the words “air space” are used in describing both methods a radiant barrier utilizes to reduce the transfer of radiant heat. For a radiant barrier to be effective in any installation, and air space of at least 3/4″ of an inch must exist on at least one side of the radiant barrier.
