Are Vaulted Ceilings Energy Efficient? (Answered) -

Vaulted ceilings are becoming a norm when it comes to modern home building.

A lot of property owners want to create visual space by having more room overhead. This includes being able to walk into a space and not look at a flat ceiling that makes things far more enclosed.

While this is all true, you want to understand the hidden factors of having a vaulted ceiling and how it works.

This includes asking, are vaulted ceilings energy efficient?

Vaulted ceilings are not energy efficient. Due to the additional space overhead, the room requires more electricity, heating, or cooling depending on the time of year. This can lead to higher utility bills.

The best solution is to go with a flat ceiling if you are considering the budgetary impact of a feature such as this at home.

In places where the internal temperature is not stable (i.e. hot summers and frigid winters), the vaulted ceiling will worsen the temperature and make it much harder to regulate as time goes on.

This article will explain some of the reasons why vaulted ceilings are not energy efficient and can lead to higher utility bills.

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Reasons Vaulted Ceiling Is Not Energy Efficient

1. Harder To Maintain Room Temperature

You are not going to save energy with a vaulted ceiling because of the room’s temperature.

Imagine it’s a hot summer’s day and you have the cooling on.

A vaulted ceiling is going to create additional space overhead that needs to be cooled. This is going to cause the cooling to spread upwards, which pushes it away from you at ground level.

This might not seem like a big deal, but it will add up.

You won’t feel cool because of where the cooling is going inside the room. This will cause you to further increase the cooling until it is perfect.

Since you are pushing the cooling to a higher level, the bills will rise too.

This goes for heating as well, which is why vaulted ceilings are simply inefficient when it comes to energy usage.

2. Requires Stronger Lighting

The lighting is going to have to be stronger.

When you set up lighting in a room with a vaulted ceiling, there is more space to cover. Average lighting is just not going to cut it and the room will begin to look darker because the vaulted ceiling is not illuminated.

This is why you have to take a step back and go with stronger lighting in the room.

This is how the electricity bills start to ramp up even when you go with eco-friendly light bulbs.

3. Opens Up More Space To Care For

For most people, you are going to want to preserve the entire space and that is going to include the vaulted ceiling.

While this is great, it is also going to increase the amount of space you have to care for.

This includes cleaning the space, maintaining it, and ensuring the space is an equal part of the room moving forward.

This is going to take up more energy and it is going to add to your costs.

This is what makes it inefficient if your sole purpose is to save on energy or money.

4. Constant Fluctuations

The fluctuations are what bother people and can make vaulted ceilings inefficient when it comes to the use of energy.

In general, everything inside the room is going to fluctuate whether it’s the temperature, lighting, and/or overall cleanliness due to the vaulted ceiling.

This is due to how the air travels inside a space with a vaulted ceiling.

The room is going to be more spacious and that will increase the fluctuations of everything including the room temperature during the year. You will notice it more than you would with a flat ceiling.

It might not seem like a lot, but it will add up over time.

Final Thoughts

Are vaulted ceilings energy efficient?

Vaulted ceilings are not energy efficient. They are the opposite. This type of ceiling opens up more space, which then needs to be illuminated, cleaned, and kept at room temperature. This leads to an increase in utility bills across the board.

In a situation such as this, you will want to account for the increase in utility bills because the rise will come.

This is a luxury feature in your build that is going to raise your bills right away. Just the cooling or heating in the room is going to ramp up the costs.

This is why being energy efficient means staying away from vaulted ceilings if you have the choice to do so.

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