Blown In Insulation
Do you live in a cold part of the country and are worried you are losing a lot of your heating bill out the roof because your house needs upgraded with blown in insulation?
If so you’d probably be interested in blown in insulation as a method to get your house insulated as and keep your heating costs down.
Getting your home as snug as possible is pretty important these days given the volatile (read: rising!) prices in the in the energy market. If you’re one of those fortunate folks who already have a wood boiler or some other type of wood fired heat you probably aren’t too concerned about the price of energy commodities.
For those who use electric, propane or fuel oil for heating though the rising energy prices are a big deal. While in the past -with fairly cheap energy- it might not have seemed worth the investment to put money into a blown in insulation job, now we can clearly see the benefits of getting some type of insulation installed whether it’s blown in cellulose insulation or another type.
What Are the Benefits of Blown In Insulation?
Blown in insulation is also known as “loose fill” insulation since it is composed of loose material of some type. The ability of the material to trap and hold air helps prevent efficient heat transfer which is a good thing when the heat is trying to transfer out of your house! The most common general types of insulation in use today are:
- Cellulose
- Spray Foam
- Fiberglass
- Cotton – Denim
Probably the primary advantage of using some type of blown in insulation is the fact that it’s easier to install in existing walls to “upgrade” your home’s insulation. Rather than tearing out drywall or plaster walls to install insulation, discrete holes can be drilled and the insulation blown in through these openings.
It is an imperfect process since house walls generally aren’t just empty spaces but are rather routes for plumbing and electrical wires. Even so it is easier to blow in an insulating material than it is to tear out all the walls to pack in new material.
Cellulose is a popular type of blown in insulation and has certain advantages unique to it that may make it more attractive to some folks than other types of insulation. Since it is treated with fire retardants it is quite good at reducing fire risk compared to fiberglass insulation which may melt more quickly allowing the fire to spread unimpeded.
Cellulose insulation is also considered one of the most environmentally friendly types of blown in insulation to use due to the fact that it is made from recycled materials such as shredded newspapers, phone books and other cellulose (paper or plant fiber) based products. According to the Cellulose Manufacturer’s Industry Association even when fiberglass type insulation is billed as “recycled” it tends to be only made of 0-40% actual recycled content.
On the other hand some of the advantages of fiberglass blown in insulation are it’s resistance to moisture and rot, it’s lack of tendency to settle as cellulose insulation is likely to do over time, and it’s lack of appeal to rodents or insects (after all it is fiberGLASS!).
While cellulose insulation is susceptible to combustion prior to being treated with flame retardants fiberglass insulation is naturally non-combustible although it may melt when exposed to high heat and thus may not be a net benefit in the fire retardation arena in comparison with cellulose insulation
Whatever type of insulation you decide to go with loose fill blown in insulation seems like a great option to at least take a look at. The ultimate goal of course is to get a good return on your insulation investment in terms of keeping your home warm and snug (or cool and snug).
Spray Foam vs. Blown In Insulation?
While spray foam insulation isn’t exactly a type of blown-in insulation it is more similar in application to loose fill type insulation than it is to traditional fiberglass rolls of batting.
You know those little cans of expanding foam insulation you can buy at the hardware store to seal little cracks in your garage or attic? Spray foam insulation is like installing that on a large scale to insulate larger parts of a structure whether that is your home, garage or other type of building.
Because of it’s expanding, foaming nature this type of insulation is particularly useful for sealing air gaps that would be hard to effectively insulate using other types of insulating materials.
Some types of spray foam insulation commonly used are:
Cementitious
- This type is a non-toxic and non-flammable cement based foam.
Phenolic
- Phenolic or Phenol-formaldehyde insulation is less popular for use today than it was in the past due to it’s tendency to shrink somewhat as it cures.
Polyisocyanurate & Polyurethane
- Both Polyisocyanurate and Polyeurethane foams are available as liquid spray foams or as rigid pre-made boards. Some thought needs to be given to the propensity of both towards thermal drift which reduces the insulating properties of the foam. Thermal drift happens as HFCF gases escape from the foam as it ages and are replaced with air.
Another type of spray foam used in the past but discontinued due to concerns about health risks it posed was Urea-formaldehyde foam.
If you’re planning to have a contractor install the insulation in your home you probably don’t need to know too much about the details of each type unless you are concerned about possible health risks of the types still in common use today.
It is probably worthwhile to do some research into the potential health effects of various types of insulation material before you have any installed since any damage will be rather hard to undo. Better safe than sorry when it comes to your families health.
Spray foam type insulation is probably a bit harder to install on a do-it-yourself basis since safety equipment needs to be used to prevent vapor inhalation and to protect yourself from the high temperatures involved. Check out this video to get an idea of what is involved with a large scale installation of spray foam.
To read a bit more about blown in insulation to compare it’s benefits or lack thereof to spray foam insulation be sure to check out this section of the site with more about loose fill insulation.