You may have gotten a postcard in the mail, inviting you to call to sign up for a free steak dinner at a local restaurant. Please be careful in your decision to set up an appointment and get an installation quote with the company that is paying for this dinner, that is selling this revolutionary product that supposedly will dramatically lower your utility bills.
It was about seven years ago I went to one of these events, and it is very persuasive! It’s about a NASA technology that is essentially tin foil, that is laid down in your attic. Think about how much it would cost someone to lay down a tin foil blanket in your attic. That’s a pretty simple job. And if this is the same company I heard about back then, they will make it sound very convincing that it will save you a lot of money on your energy bills.
Please don’t make any hasty decisions. I had the company to our home as I was curious, but also highly skeptical! I confess it sounded amazing. I can’t remember the name of the company or the quote we were given, but it was not cheap! There was a promise of significantly reducing your energy bill. But take a moment to research this.
From what I’ve seen online, a radiant barrier may reduce the heat in an insulated attic by 40 percent. But be careful, as this doesn’t mean your energy bill will go down 40 percent. The average cooling load of an attic space is about 20 percent of your house, so 40 percent of 20 percent is about 8 percent. So say your monthly energy bill is $100…then you would perhaps save 8 percent or $8 per month. That is $96 per year. I seem to recall the quote was around $3000. That would take roughly 31 years to pay off with energy savings.
Think about that when you get a high pressure sales person pushing you to sign a pretty pricey quote, that is good only for that one day. Too, this phone number connects you to a third party whose job is to sign up people for this event. There isn’t any mention of the company who is selling the product on the postcard so you can investigate beforehand. The company name and address on the postcard is actually the name and address of a printer, I assume the printer who printed these postcards..but why would they put that there?
I remember checking out this company at the Better Business Bureau, bbb.org, and they had an abysmal rating with a lot of complaints.
They say “there’s no such thing as a free lunch”…well in this case substitute “dinner!” Please beware, and ask your friends and neighbors if they are going to this event, and if so please share this information and tell them this home “improvement” is not a good idea, at best.
As this is just for homeowners, there were quite a few seniors there, and I wondered if any had signed a contract. Again, please check the company out at bbb.org before you sign anything!
Jennifer Karches
Bowling Green
