How To Insulate Your Home Efficiently

By Alfie A Wyatt

If you live in a colder climate, the chances are that you may feel the chill during the winter months. Heating your home is an expensive process and we don't always have the money to cover this extra outgoing. If you take some care to examine your insulation quality, you can start to reduce the costs of heating whilst retaining your interior heat levels. Here we look at the ways in which you can stop heat escaping and cold air invading your family home.

Doors

A huge amount of energy is lost via badly hung doors, but you can remedy this easily. You should buy some decent draught excluders and install them around your exterior doors. Sealant strips are a cheap way of ensuring that air does not leave your home, nor will the cold air worm its way under your door. Letter boxes can allow cold air and wind to invade your hallway, fir some brush trim to minimize the unwelcome guest from your family home.

Windows

So much air can enter and exit via poor conditioned windows. You can check for suspect areas by simply passing your hand over these frames during a particularly windy and cold day. As soon as you experience a breezy window you can apply some sealer or putty to remedy the situation quickly.

Upgrade?

If you have the available funds and you think that your windows have seen better days, why not consider installing double glazed units? You will soon feel the benefits in your reduced heating bill, but you may be surprised by the noise reduction as an added bonus.

Floor Gaps

Check your skirting boards and will probably notice some large gaps; these are costing you serious money. Buy some silicone sealer and start to fight back against the cold invader. If you have laminate flooring, you could add some insulation, but ensure you do not damage the product. You may also wish to consider a swish rug as this will trap most of the cold air before it enters your room.

Loft Insulation

A huge amount of warm air is lost when your attic has poor or no insulation installed. By laying a decent layer of glass wool over the floor area, you can save one tonne of carbon dioxide per year. This product is very cheap and is fairly easy to install, it is also recyclable.

Hot Water Tank

You may be surprised to learn how much warm air is lost by an uninsulated hot water tank. Why not fit an eighty millimetre warming jacket and enjoy the extra seventy five percent benefit that will come your way as a result.

Cold wall/Drywall

Cold wall describes a non-insulated concrete wall and these can feature heavily in older houses. A large amount of heat can escape via this route and you will be wise to pay some attention to this culprit sooner rather than later. Simply assemble a ten millimetre dry wall to the surface and this will suffice by blocking the access route soundly.

To make sure that your home is insulated efficiently contact Sandium Heating and Air for a whole house energy audit. 

Insulation to Help Keep Us Warm - Not Warm the Planet

I've been quite vocal in regards to a real problem with some of our most typical insulation materials: that they're manufactured by using blowing agents that have highly concentrated greenhouse gases.

All extruded polystyrene (XPS) and almost all closed-cell spray polyurethane foams (SPF) are produced with HFC (hydrofluorocarbon) blowing agents which have global warming potentials (GWPs) many hundreds of times higher than that of carbon dioxide. (Sorry for contaminating this column with the amount of acronyms!)


Insulation: great news, not so great news

Insulation materials help our houses save energy and, by doing this, they decrease the burning of fossil fuels and the release of greenhouse gases.

However, if the insulation material itself is made using a very-high-GWP blowing agent which could eventually escape from the insulation, adding a great deal of insulation might actually be a very bad thing from the viewpoint of mitigating climate change. All that was detailed in my article several years ago, "Avoiding the Global Warming Effects of Insulation" and, in depth, in the EBN feature write-up on the exact same topic.


OK for ozone, detrimental for the climate

With XPS, the blowing agent HFC-134a has a GWP of 1,430, which means that it's 1,430 times as potent as carbon dioxide (that is defined as having a GWP of 1). Almost all closed-cell SPF is produced with the blowing agent HFC-245fa, which has a GWP of 1,030.

Relative to global warming, all these blowing agents aren't as bad as the CFCs that have been used originally, however they are as bad as the HCFCs (hydrochlorocfluorcarbons) that have been adopted as second-generation blowing agents. (Both HFCs and HFOs are believed to be completely safe for the ozone, which is the reason CFCs and HCFCs happen to be eliminated.)



Blowing agents: the next generation

Anyhow, given all of this, I've been closely following the breakthroughs by industry in developing alternatives which are neither ozone depleters nor considerable greenhouse gases.

A couple of years ago, it appeared that the primary candidates were HFOs (hydrofluoroolefins), and Honeywell revealed the development of this sort of product in 2011. And also, it was just reported a couple weeks ago that Whirlpool, the nation's biggest home appliance company (with such brands as Maytag, Amana, Jenn-Air, and KitchenAid, as well as Whirlpool), was shifting to a different HFO blowing agent for the polyurethane insulation in all of its refrigerators.

Whirlpool is going to be utilizing the new Solstice Liquid Blowing Agent created by Honeywell, one of the nation's 3 makers of blowing agents (as well as DuPont and Arkema). Solstice HFO has zero ozone depletion potential and a GWP of just 4.7 to 7.0-similar to that of the numerous hydrocarbon blowing agents found in expanded polystyrene and polyisocyanurate - and insignificant relative to global warming.


Performance enhancement an additional benefit

Further more, Solstice HFO will increase the R-value of the insulation components just a little. Compared to HFC-245fa, this HFO yields insulation with 2% higher R-value, and in contrast to hydrocarbon blowing agents it provides an 8% to 10% enchancment, determined by Honeywell.

While the improvement is fantastic, it's not instant. The HFO has recently received its approvals from the united states government, and this will require sometime to ramp up manufacturing and switch refrigerator manufacturers to the new foam. Whirlpool plans to get started on integrating the new blowing agents into its refrigerators in end of the 2013.


Spray-foam producers not so quick to adopt HFOs

But what about the closed-cell SPF insulation that's widely used to insulate buildings?

SPF manufacturers will likely be exchanging the HFC-245fa with HFO . but it's uncertain exactly when that could happen. Rick Duncan, the technical director at the Spray Polyurethane Foam Alliance (SPFA), the trade association serving the SPF industry, explained to me that some SPF manufacturers ("system houses") are performing field tests with the new HFO blowing agents, and not all of them. (At least one manufacturer, Icynene, also produces a water-blown, medium-density foam, MD-R-200, which insulates to R-5.2 per inch and is known as both an open-cell and closed-cell product in the Icynene web-site; just about all other water-blown SPF products are thought to be discontinued.)

Unlike in 2003 when federal rules required a change from HCFC to HFC blowing agents as a consequence of ozone depletion fears, there are no similar regulations demanding a switch from HFCs to HFOs.


It's up to us

Plus the conversion process requires time and is also really expensive - about 12 months and a minimum of $100,000, says Duncan. With the building industry still in an market recession, companies aren't planning to invest a lot of extra money on product advancement.

Duncan feels, however, that after a new life-cycle assessment (LCA) report on SPF is released that SPFA is now finalizing, consumers will start requesting for lower-GWP foam and manufacturers will answer by making it. From an environmental perspective, open-cell SPF (which doesn't contain HFC blowing agents) has just 1/20th the global warming effects of closed-cell SPF.


A lot less action in the XPS camp

I wasn't capable of getting nearly as much information and facts from the extruded polystyrene industry about when the HFC-134a may be substituted with a lower-GWP blowing agent and whether there's a gaseous type of HFO which could work with that industry. (While a liquefied blowing agent is utilized in developing SPF, a gaseous blowing agent is essential for XPS.)

Jan McKinnon, the senior communications director at Dow Building Solutions (manufacturer of Dow Styrofoam XPS), states that this company is seeking solutions to decrease its greenhouse gas pollution levels. "Since the kick off of our new formulation in 2010 [converting from HCFC-142b to HFC-134a], we keep looking at reducing our blowing agent global warming potential, and we have an proactive process in position to lower it by 15%," she informed me. She said that they are actively evaluating alternative blowing agents for XPS, "but a good number of of these technologies are still in their infancy."


Not a terrific time to invest in products

Each of the SPF and XPS markets already have experienced a couple of significant changes: from CFC to HCFC blowing agents and then from HCFC to HFC blowing agents.

With a weakened constructing economy and depressed sales and profits of constructing supplies, excitement for a 3rd significant conversion has been very little. However I feel that you will see a increasing demand to make products with very little affect on global climate change as is possible - and in case this year's heat and drought continue on, that demand may possibly increase.

Let's hope so.

Insulation, Sealing Air Leaks - A Green Remodel to help Cut Power Bills

How would you like to dramatically slash your electricity bill as much as 85%? Superinsulating a house can significantly enhance the energy performance of an old house. These so-called  deep energy retrofits achieve household energy as much as 85% by addressing all (or almost all) energy loads - space conditioning, warm water, lighting, home appliances, and plug loads - or even transportation. Energy cutbacks of this magnitude require a rigorous and extensive systems approach: The natural associations among energy, indoor quality of air, sturdiness, and thermal comfort should be honored throughout construction and designs. Passive photo voltaic design and renewable energy systems are typical during these projects.

The objectives of any house energy retrofit can be like those of a brand new green residence, however like all remodels, a big difference is basically you have to deal with a pre-existing building. Below are a few house systems with particular areas you should focus on.

1. Upgrade Your Home's Windows

With the top and bottom of the home sealed tightly and insulated, the very next prospect will be the walls. Did you know that old and outdated windows is like having a significant hole in your wall? While functioning poorly, they often leak both water and air into the house. Correctly mounted, Energy Star (or even better) windows seal off the gaps in the walls to hold out water and climate extremes.

2. Modernize The Mechanical Equipment

A classic heater or central heating boiler is frequently the worst energy user within an old house. Many houses built just before 1920 have old coal-fired central heating boilers which were transformed into gas or oil. These models are workhorses, but use lots of energy. A brand new furnace or boiler can help to save energy dollars immediately. Changing window air conditioning units, which we did in most these houses, having a central system may also save energy immediately, as lengthy because the tubes continues to be put into the conditioned space. Photo voltaic water heating is a great choice to add here if you're able to afford it, but at the

minimum, upgrade the efficiency of warm water production by coupling the tank towards the boiler.

3. Bring The Basement And Crawlspace Inside Your Home

Warm, dry cellars and crawlspaces can extend living and space for storage. Wet cellars are the source of high humidity levels and discomfort in the summertime in old houses. They can also cause mold growth that will get distributed throughout the house. Spray foam is really a fast, efficient way to create these areas in to the conditioned space while sealing the leaks between foundation and floor framework.

4. Super-insulate And Air-seal The Roofing

If air leaks in at the bottom of the home, it leaks out at the very top, making a home cold and drafty in the winter months. A poorly insulated roof also can produce a hot house in summer time. Air-sealing is really a by-product of excellent insulation, so it’s a real one-step process. Using spray foam within roof may also eliminate the requirement for roof ventilation, that is tricky in complicated roofs.

5. Insulate Your Walls

Filling empty wall cavities with cellulose is really a cheap, easy, efficient way to warm-up a classic house. Blowing cellulose into existing wall tooth decay is definitely an art, to be certain, but you will find many companies who've been doing the work for a long time. Actually, you will find now affordable methods to seek advice from infrared cameras to make certain that voids happen to be filled without disturbing the present plaster or sheathing on outdoors walls. Because siding or shingles on old houses may also normally wear out, we go ahead and take chance to set up foam sheathing around the outdoors of the home before re-siding.

6. Get Energy Star (or even better)

Fittings, home appliances, and lighting after you have reduced your parking space conditioning and water-heating loads, the lighting, appliance, and plug load will probably be your next large energy item. A brand new Energy Star refrigerator uses 15% less energy than the usual standard model. Changing old light fittings with pin-based compact fluorescent fittings guarantees your utility bill will remain lower (as much as 30%).

7. Put In A Renewable-Energy Supply

When your energy consumption continues to be reduced considerably, it might be reasonable to create your personal energy with systems such as photovoltaics, wind energy, or hydro, if you possess a stream nearby. Before you slash the energy usage, though, it isn't worth the money in renewable energy sources. Conservation remains the least expensive game around.

Insulation - What Types Are Out There?

Insulation is the phenomenon of slowing down the flow of heat, electricity or sound. Insulation can be used both to prevent heat gain and heat loss from the surrounding. Most electrical appliances use insulation technology like Refrigerators, freezers and Heaters. Insulation should be installed in the areas between heated and non heated space.

One of the main applications of insulation is house insulation. An insulated home is more energy efficient, requires less maintenance and is more comfortable as the temperature remains uniform over weather changes. Insulation at home helps in saving energy and reducing utility bills. It makes the house more comfortable. Insulation at home not only helps in keeping the house cool in summer and warm in winter but it also prevents damage from leaking water and provides a good thermal resistance. Insulation is very useful to keep the temperature of the house independent from outdoor temperature.

Insulation at home helps in saving energy and reducing utility bills. It makes the house more comfortable. Insulation at home not only helps in keeping the house cool in summer and warm in winters but it also prevents damage from leaking water and provides a good thermal resistance. Insulation is very useful to keep the temperature of the house independent from outdoor temperature.

There are many types of home insulation available. All the different types of insulation have their pros and cons. They are mainly differentiated based on the material used for the insulation. They can be separated into Plastic foam, rigid board, reflective, loose fill, batts and blankets and blown in insulation etc.

Foam insulation is performed by pouring the liquid foam from a container. Foam insulation is a bit more expensive than batt and blanket insulation. Foam insulation is convenient to install while constructing the house rather than going into already built structures. As the foam insulation used to be air tight , it is not generally recommended for attic insulation.

Spray foam insulation is used to insulate the walls and ceilings do keep the house warmer during cold weather and to keep it cool in summer. Spray Foam insulation is a bit more expensive than Fiber glass insulation. This type of insulation can reduce utility and repair bills as your house is naturally warmer and free from bugs due to the insulation. Spray form insulation lasts longer than other types.

Ductwork Insulation is used to insulate ducts and hot and cold water supply pipes, water heaters and air conditioners etc. to control the temperature of air and water. It is not that expensive but can help in high energy and cost saving.

Attic insulation is a must in any house to have comfortable room temperature. A house should have an attic that has a room temperature close to the outdoor temperature. Attic insulation would not be adequate if there is not a sufficient amount of it or it has gotten wet or has become less effective due to gaps or damage in insulation. The houses that have a warm surroundings and environment can have R38 insulation while a house in a cold climate can have R49 insulation.

Eric Comforth is a consultant who writes on many consumer topics.There's plenty more insulation information at Sandium.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Eric_Comforth

Heating and Air Conditioning Duct Maintenance

Your HVAC ductwork is the series of tubes that carry treated air through out the building. If you are thinking about installing a brand new central air or heat pump inside your residence, you should make certain the ductwork that could carry your new higher efficiency air conditioner is up to par with the system. As the air flows by means of these ducts, any leaks or issues will ruin the impact in the whole system. You may believe that the system itself isn't working as it should- when it is really the duct-work that is causing the problems.

When installing or diagnosing a system for HVAC repairs, a good technician will inspect all of the ducts. First off he is looking to determine if the existing duct system will match the new air handler that was installed. This will also show if there are any leaks or other challenges. Lastly, ducts need to be insulated and routed inside a certain way to maintain safety. This approach is known in the industry as: checking for ductwork integrity.

The typical residential HVAC system has some leakage. So it is possible that you may get the same cost savings in just repairing the ducts as you would in investing in a new HE system. If 20% of the air is leaking, then your HVAC unit will need to function harder. This results in larger bills and possible furnace repairs. So it is important to ask the HVAC tech to check the integrity on the ducts. They will not mind- it is what they are trained to do.

To sustain the efficiency of this well sealed ductwork, your local Sandium HVAC company will install insulation around it. The insulation also serves to safeguard the inside of your property from the temperature variations brought on by hot or cool air flowing. At these temperature change points moisture tends to accumulate. As water saturated air below the dew point gets in contact with warm beams, then it'll sweat. This ruins the ducts and may trigger mold and mildew difficulties. To counteract this be sure there is a vapor barrier between the treated air and the outside air.

To schedule an appointment with one of our skilled technicians to check your duct work please visit Sandium.Com or call (408) 894-9072

Grading the Installation Quality of Insulation

How to tell the difference between perfectly installed insulation and a lousy insulation job

POSTED ON AUG 27 2012 BY ALLISON A. BAILES III, PHD, GBA ADVISOR

Six years ago, RESNET published a major revision of the HERS Standards, officially named the 2006 Mortgage Industry National Home Energy Rating Systems Standards. One important new feature in the standards was the grading of insulation installation quality. Before this change, R-13 insulation installed poorly (as shown in the second photo, below) was equivalent to any other R-13 insulation, including insulation with impeccable installation quality (as shown at the top of this article).

If you know any HERS raters, you've probably heard the debates about the various types of insulation and the poor quality of installation they sometimes see. (OK, you're right; it's more than just an occasional sighting.) In fact, the Green Curmudgeon's suggestion that maybe we ought to consider banning batt insulation has generateda discussion that won't die.

So, how exactly does this system of grading the installation quality of insulation work? Raters have been doing it for six years now, so it's time for the rest of you to find out what they're doing. First, a brief overview:

A home energy rating includes energy modeling to see how energy efficient a home is or will be. Most HERS ratings have been done for new homes that are seeking to qualify for a program's label or certification, such as the ENERGY STAR new homes program. The rater gathers all the information about the building envelope, the heating and cooling systems, ventilation, water heating, lights, and appliances. The data go into the energy rating software, which does the calculations and comes up with estimated annual consumption and costs as well as a number called the HERS Index.

The three grades: I, II, and III

The R-value of the insulation in all the insulated building assemblies (walls, ceilings, floors) can have a big effect on the results. Now that raters put a grade on the installation quality, it helps the rater develop a more accurate energy model of the home. When a rater goes in and looks at the insulation, they've got to record each assembly as having a Grade I, Grade II, or Grade III insulation installation quality.

Note: This protocol applies to all types of cavity insulation, not just fiberglass batts. Spray foam, cellulose, and mineral wool can all be installed with gaps, compression, and incompletely filled areas, and they can all be installed well.

Grade I is the best. This means that the insulation is installed according to the manufacturer's instructions. It completely fills the cavity in the case of air-permeable insulation and also is encapsulated on six sides (with an exception for IECC climate zones 1-3). It's cut around electrical junction boxes, split around wires and pipes, and generally not compressed.

Grade II is second best. There's some allowance for imperfections in the installation but overall, it's still not too bad. The HERS Standards say a Grade II installation can have "moderate to frequent installation defects: gaps around wiring, electrical outlets, plumbing and other intrusions; rounded edges or “shoulders”; or incomplete fill..."

Grade III is the lowest grade. It has "substantial gaps and voids."

The energy rating software models these three grades differently. When the rater enters Grade I, the software calculates according 100% of the cavity insulation having the R-value entered. When the rater enters Grade II, the software models the cavities as having 98% of their area insulated to the given R-value and 2% uninsulated. For Grade III, 95% of the cavity area is calculated with the given R-value and 5% is treated as uninsulated. (The reason for these particular numbers should become clear to you below.)

The two criteria for assigning the grade

When the HERS rater is inspecting the insulation installation quality, they look at two criteria:

• Missing insulation
• Compression and incompletely filled areas

Missing insulation. When a cavity in a building assembly has insulation installed in a way that leaves gaps, that affects the amount of heat that flows across the building envelope. More heat will pass through assemblies that have gaps. (If you want to see just how much a little bit of missing insulation can hurt performance, check out this calculation for a ceiling with an uninsulated attic hatch.) The more gaps there are, the worse the grade it gets. Here's how the HERS Standards relate missing insulation to grade:

• Grade I: "Occasional very small gaps are acceptable." In another place, the Standards say, "if the exterior sheathing is visible from the building interior through gaps in the cavity insulation material, it is not considered a 'Grade I' installation." 
• Grade II: Up to 2% missing insulation
• Grade III: Between 2% and 5% missing insulation

If you're wondering what happens when you do an inspection and find that more than 5% of an assembly is missing insulation, the answer is that you have to break out the uninsulated part and model it separately. If it's new construction, you'll probably be telling the builder to finish insulating, but in existing homes, sometimes you have to model the uninsulated part.

The illustration below (image #3), taken from the HERS Standards (Appendix A, pages A-11 to A-16), shows visually what the rater should be looking for.

Compression and incomplete fill. Compression is a common problem with fiberglass batt insulation because the batts are often not cut to the proper size for the cavity.

• Grade I: Up to 2% of the area can have compression or incomplete fill. If a spot is incompletely filled, it must be depleted no more than 30% to attain Grade I. In other words, no more than 20 square feet of each 1000 square feet can have this problem, and even those 20 square feet must be filled to at least 70% of their intended depth.
• Grade II: Up to 10% of the area can have compression or incomplete fill and again must be filled to at least 70% of their intended insulation depth.
• Grade III: Unspecified. I take this to mean that any compression or incomplete fill that lies outside the bounds specified for Grade I or Grade II would garner that assembly a Grade III.

The illustration below (image #4), again taken from the HERS Standards, shows what these conditions would look like.

Making the grade

Most of the time, assigning a grade to an insulation installation isn't really so hard. Sometimes, you look at it and see immediately that it's Grade I. Other times, it's immediatley obvious that it's Grade III. The difficulty comes in when you're on the boundary between I and II or between II and III. That's when you might need to dig a little deeper and get out your measuring tape. If you want to learn more about this, download a copy of the HERS Standards (link below) and read pages A-11 through A-16 in Appendix A. If you're a home builder or insulation contractor working with HERS raters, it's important to know exactly what they're looking for.

Putting a grade on the installation of insulation and doing inspections before drywall goes into new homes were two of the biggest changes that RESNET and ENERGY STAR introduced six years ago. New homes that have gone through this process have gotten a lot better as a result.

Do you live in the South Bay Area of California and want to learn more about insulation? Please visit Sandium.Com

Download the HERS Standards: 2006 National Mortgage Industry Home Energy Rating System Standards (pdf)

Allison Bailes of Decatur, Georgia, is a RESNET-accredited energy consultant, trainer, and the author of the Energy Vanguard blog.

Article Courtesy of: Green Building Advisor

About Insulation

How Insulation Works You need insulation in your home to provide resistance to heat flow. The more heat flow resistance your insulation provides, the lower your heating and cooling cost. Heat flows naturally from a warmer to a cooler space. In the winter, this heat flow moves directly from all heated living spaces to adjacent unheated attics, garages, basements, and even to the outdoors. Heat flow can also move indirectly through interior ceilings, walls, and floors - wherever there is a difference in temperature. During the cooling season, heat flows from the outdoors to the interior of a house. To maintain comfort, the heat loss in the winter must be replaced by your heating system and the heat gained in the summer must be removed by your cooling system. Properly insulating your home will decrease this heat flow by providing and effective resistance to the heat flow. An insulation's resistance to heat flow is measured or rated in terms of its thermal resistance or R-value.

Which Kind Of Insulation Is Best? The answer is that the 'best' type of insulation depends on: how much insulation is needed, the accessibility of the insulation location, the space available for the insulation, local availability and price of insulation, and other considerations unique to each purchaser. Whenever you compare insulation products, it is critical that you base your comparison on equal R-values.

What Is an R-Value? Insulation is rated in terms of thermal resistance, called R-value, which indicates the resistance to heat flow. The higher the R-value, the greater the insulating effectiveness.The R-value of thermal insulation depends on the type of material, its thickness, and its density. In calculating the R-value of a multi-layered installation, the R-values of the individual layers are added. The effectiveness of an insulated ceiling, wall or floor depends on how and where the insulation is installed. Insulation which is compressed will not give you its full rated R-value. This can happen if you add denser insulation on top of lighter insulation in an attic. It also happens if you place batts rated for one thickness into a thinner cavity, such as placing R-19 insulation rated for 6 1/4 inches into a 5 1/2 inch wall cavity. Insulation placed between joists, rafters, and studs does not retard heat flow through those joists or studs. This heat flow is called thermal bridging. So, the overall R-value of a wall or ceiling will be somewhat different from the R-value of the insulation itself. That is why it is important that attic insulation cover the tops of the joist and that is also why we often recommend the use of insulative sheathing on walls. The short-circuiting through metal framing is much greater that that through wood-framed walls; sometimes the insulated metal wall's overall R-value can be as low as half the insulation's R-value.

Insulation Product Types   Some types of insulation require professional installation, and others you can install yourself. You should consider the several forms of insulation available, their R-values, and the thickness needed. The type of insulation you use will be determined by the nature of the spaces in the house that you plan to insulate. For example, since you cannot conveniently "pour" insulation into an overhead space, blankets, spray-foam, board products, or reflective systems are used between the joists of an unfinished basement ceiling. The most economical way to fill closed cavities in finished walls is with blown-in insulation applied with pneumatic equipment or with sprayed-in-place foam insulation.  The different forms of insulation can be used together. For example, you can add batt or roll insulation over loose-fill insulation, or vise-versa. Usually, material of higher density (weight per unit volume) should not be placed on top of lower density insulation that is easily compressed. Doing so will reduce the thickness of the material underneath and thereby lower its R-value. There is one exception to this rule: When attic temperatures drop below 0 degrees F, some low-density, fiberglass, loose-fill insulation installations may allow air to circulate between the top of your ceiling and the attic, decreasing the effectiveness of the insulation. You can eliminate this air circulation by covering the low-density, loose-fill insulation with a blanket insulation product or with a higher density loose-fill insulation.

Blankets, in the form of batts or rolls, are flexible products made from mineral fibers, including fiberglass or rock wool. They are available in widths suited to standard spacing of wall studs and attic or floor joists. They must be hand-cut and trimmed to fit wherever the joist spacing is non-standard (such as near windows, doors, or corners), or where there are obstructions in the walls (such as wires, electrical outlet boxes, or pipes). Batts can be installed by homeowners or professionals. They are available with or without vapor-retarder facings. Batts with a special flame-resistant facing are available in various widths for basement walls where insulation will be left exposed.

Blown-in loose-fillinsulation includes cellulose, fiberglass, or rock wool in the form of loose fibers or fiber pellets that are blown using pneumatic equipment, usually by professional installers. This form of insulation can be used in wall cavities. It is also appropriate for unfinished attic floors, for irregularly shaped areas, and for filling in around obstructions. In the open wall cavities of a new house, cellulose and fiberglass fibers can also be sprayed after mixing the fibers with and adhesive or foam to make them resistant to settling.

Foam insulation can be applied by a professional using special equipment to meter, mix, and spray the foam into place. Polyicynene is an open-celled foam. Polyisocyanurate and polyurethane are closed-cell foams. In general, open-celled foam allows water vapor to move through the material more easily than closed-cell foam. However, open-celled foams usually have a lower R-value for a given thickness compared to closed-cell foams. So, some of the closed-cell foams are able to provide a greater R-value where space is limited.

Rigid insulation is made from fibrous materials or plastic foams and is produced in board-like forms and molded pipe coverings. These provide full coverage with few heat loss paths and are often able to provide a greater R-value where space is limited. Such boards may be faced with a reflective foil that reduces heat flow when next to an air space. Rigid insulation is often used for foundations and as an insulative wall sheathing.

Reflective insulation systems are fabricated from aluminum foils with a variety of backings such as kraft paper, plastic film, polyethylene bubbles, or cardboard. The resistance to heat flow depends on the heat flow direction, and this type of insulation is most effective in reducing downward heat flow. Reflective systems are typically located between roof rafters, floor joists, or wall studs. If a single reflective surface is used alone and faces and open space, such as an attic, it is called aradiant barrier. Radiant barriers are installed in buildings to reduce summer heat gain and winter heat loss. In new buildings, you can select foil-faced wood products for your roof sheathing (installed with the foil facing down into the attic or other locations to provide the radiant barrier as an integral part of the structure. For existing buildings, the radiant barrier is typically fastened across the bottom of joists, as shown in this drawing. All radiant barriers must have a low emittance (0.1 or less) and high reflectance (0.9 or more).

Foil Faced -Fiberglass insulation thermal/sound attenuation blanket with an asphalted foil kraft paper facing on one side with stapling flanges at edges. R-38, 12" thick R-38 R-Best, 10" thick R-30, 9 1/2" thick R-30 R-Best, 8 1/2" thick R-21 R-Best, 5 1/2" thick R-19, 6 1/2" thick R-15 R-Best, 3 5/8" thick R-13, 3 5/8" thick R-11, 3 1/2" thick

Kraft Faced -Fiberglass insulation thermal/sound attenuation blanket with an asphalted kraft paper facing on one side with stapling flanges at edges. R-38, 12" thick R-38 R-Best, 10" thick R-30, 9 1/2" thick R-30 R-Best, 8 1/2" thick R-25, 8 1/2" thick R-22, 7 1/2" thick R-21 R-Best, 5 1/2" thick R-19, 6 1/2" thick R-15 R-Best, 3 5/8" thick R-13, 3 5/8" thick R-11, 3 1/2" thick

FS 25 -Designed for use where a vapor barrier is required and can be left exposed in low abuse areas.  Used for jobs where a flame spread of 25 is required. R-11, 3 1/2" thick; used more often than R-19 and R-30 R-13, 3 5/8" thick; used more often than R-19 and R-30 R-19, 6 1/2" thick; used less often than R-11 and R-13 R-30, 9 1/2" thick; used less often than R-11 and R-13

Unfaced -An unfaced fiberglass thermal/sound attenuation blanket with no vapor barrier.  Designed to fit between studs by friction. R-38, 12" thick R-38 R-Best, 10" thick R-30, 9 1/2" thick R-30 R-Best, 8 1/2" thick R-25, 8 1/2" thick R-22, 7 1/2" thick R-21 R-Best, 5 1/2" thick R-19, 6 1/2" thick R-15 R-Best, 3 5/8" thick R-13, 3 5/8" thick R-11, 3 1/2" thick R-8, 2 5/8" thick

Basement Wall Insulation -A fiberglass blanket laminated to a reinforced facing which can be left exposed.  It is also available unfaced for non exposed areas such as crawlspaces. R-11, 3 1/2" thick

Attic Guard -A white loose-fill fiberglass insulation.  Designed for mineral fiber blowing machines. R-Value and thickness can be determined upon your needs and budget.

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