Energy Efficient Insulation Options Green Power Offers:

As you know, focusing your budget on insulation, the major guts of the home is an important area to make your home more energy efficient, and help reduce the carbon footprint. Probably the biggest organ of all in the home is the insulation or quality of the shell. Unfortunately, we at Green Power see many homes that are not that old needing to have their insulation upgraded, they just didn’t see energy cost going through the roof, so near in the future.

With so many options for insulation, we at Green power will help you pick the best product that will meet your “green” criteria, and your budget. The use of formaldehyde-free insulations such as cotton or cellulose or recycled newspaper insulation material installed in walls and ceilings is also an important way to make your home environment healthier. Here are some of the options green power suggests for your project. These are not all of the options out there for insulation, but they cover the main options that you can use to create a well insulated home.

Traditional Batt Insulation or Alternatives

Batt or Blanket Insulation is the most common and least effective insulation used in the states today. It has an approximate rating of R-3 per inch. Technically the R rating is even lower because typical batts are so loose that they allow air to penetrate them and cool them down. For example, 6.5″ thick R-19 batts have actually been tested to achieve only an R-13.8 rating in typical installations.

Other issues with typical fiberglass insulation include difficulty of having it installed improperly and contributing to poor indoor air quality of the finished home. It is possible to use batts effectively in energy efficient homes but the installation is labor intensive. Since batts do not seal air out well, all joints and gaps must be sealed by hand and the batts must be precisely cut to fill all gaps perfectly, especially around electrical outlets and gas or plumbing runs.

One slightly greener alternative to batts would be to use batts or rolls made of natural fibers such as Bonded Logic’s insulation made from recycled denim jeans. These types of insulation typically have a slightly higher R rating and do not harm the indoor air quality since they are made of natural materials. The trade off is that they are pricey and still do not effectively seal air gaps without extra labor and supervision.

Blown-In Cellulose Insulation

Loose-Fill Insulation is an option that can be eco-friendly. Specifically, Cellulose is a type of blown-in or loose-fill insulation that is made from recycled newspapers. There pros and cons but the bottom line is that it will not provide much better R factors than batt insulation and typically will cost more to have installed. The best applications seem to be for attics that are not well insulated because cellulose can be quickly and efficiently blow over an attic floor to dramatically and safely increase the insulation between the home and the hot attic space.

Rigid Board Insulation

Rigid Board Insulation can contain some of the highest R values with some Polyurethane sheets reaching R-8 per inch. Since the insulation comes in the form of rigid boards it is popular as roof and wall coverings attached to the exterior of the framing of a new home. Attaching to the exterior of the framing will improve the strength of the structure while also creating an insulated break (thermal barrier) between the wood studs and the exterior sheathing or siding. This can greatly reduce the heat loss transferred from the inside of the home though the wood studs and to the exterior that occurs in the vast majority of new homes today in the U.S.

There are also green versions of rigid board that are normally classified as polystyrene rigid insulation. This type may contain some recycled materials and will not off-gas like some of the other sheet products might. One last advantage to rigid board insulation is that you can find boards that are laminated or strengthened to act as both the homes sheathing and insulation. Since sheathing of some type is necessary, this doesn’t eliminate a step but can greatly improve the building envelope without additional labor.

Spray Foam Insulation

Spray-Foam Insulation is probably the most effective type of insulation for traditional, stick-framed homes available today. The product is in the form of a liquid that is sprayed on and quickly expands to 100 times its size. It can achieve R values of R-9 per inch but most importantly, it automatically creates an almost perfect air seal upon expanding. While the product is costly, it is effective and reduces a lot of manual caulking and sealing that would be necessary with other types of insulations.

The most popular forms are petroleum based but there are also green options such as BioBased Insulation that is composed of 96% bio-content (soy-beans).