subject: Insulation: Saving your Money and your Heat [print this page] Insulation: Saving your Money and your Heat
Saving your Money and Your Heat
Insulation is a materials ability to keep heat, specific heat is the amount of energy needed to change one gram of a material one degree Celsius. For a regular home owner the best way to determine which insulator is right for your house is to check the R-value. The higher the R-value the better, often times the R-value will not be exactly enough because in critical places your usual R-value will not be enough to keep the desired amount of heat in. Usually fiberglass is considered the best insulator, but in different scenarios there may be more effective methods. When trying to keep heat in one can use different insulation, there are many different methods such as rigid or foam. When trying to keep heat out you also have some different choices such as radiant barriers. The most important thing to remember is what you're looking for; your wants and needs. These two different categories should play a factor in this decision. If you need a specific type of insulation due to budget or R-value, you should not let a "want" get in the way because of the way it looks on your basements ceiling. If you decide that the way it looks is more important than its actual effectiveness then you should place them in opposite categories.
There are some basic fundamentals of insulation that Insulation Handbook covers very clearly in chapter three Insulation Fundamentals and Principles. First off, a house will lose heat in the winter and allow heat in during the summer (21). Most know this common rule, but it is still important to fully understand this rule because unless you vacuum seal your house there is no amount of insulation that is going to prevent heat from coming or going. Insulation works so that it prevents a certain amount of the heat from coming or going from a designated area; specifically your house. Understanding insulation requires that you to understand the three basic ways in which heat can move; convection, conduction, and radiation. During the winter a family's heat will move through areas that are not heated. This is an example of convection, as the heat moved from a place of high thermal energy to a place of low thermal energy. Moving on, if you were to hold a hot cup of coffee it would keep your hand warm because the heat is transferring from the coffee to your hand. If you had a Styrofoam cup on the outside of the coffee to prevent the coffee from burning your hand, then you used insulation to save the wellbeing of your hand; congratulations, you, the person providing the Styrofoam cup, or the person providing the Styrofoam cup for the provider of your coffee knew that the Styrofoam cup would impede the movement of heat from your coffee to your hand because Styrofoam makes a good insulator. Finally, the last and least known form of heat transfer, radiation. You may have noticed at one time or another that by touching a sidewalk that is dark colored you will burn your hand. You can thank radiant energy for your newly acquired scar; the heat has transferred from the sun's electromagnetic waves to the pavement that you have just touched and burned your hand on. All three scenarios show the basic transfers on energy in which we see in our everyday lives, but the question still stands; how can I keep my home warm/cool in the winter/summer? Well due to professionals that are capable of bringing your home the highest quality insulation and the potential of being ripped off by an "insulation expert", the question for most is "How can I save my money and my heat?"
To find your best possible answer to the question; "How can I save my heat and my money?" you need to understand what you type of insulation you need, how much you need, and whether or not you need professional help.
To avoid being ripped off when purchasing insulation make sure that you;
A) Read the R-value on the package (to protect consumers the Federal Trade Commission has enforced the rule that the merchant includes the R-value on the outside)
B) Make sure to ask what the R-value is so that you get what you are paying for and that they don't give you cheap material.
C) Verify your "needs" and "wants" in your purchase
D) Research a reasonable amount on the type of insulation you plan on purchasing.
There are specific forms of insulation that one cannot install themself, and because of the need for professional assistance they can be very expensive. Both spray insulation foam and fiber glass fiber (foam) are extremely effective methods of insulation. Because the foams can fit themselves to the targeted area and will not allow for air to pass as a rigid barrier may. A professional can spray the fibers is an area where it is irregularly shaped, on an unfinished floor, or in an area with some obstructions. In the open cavities of a house you can spray the fibers mixed with foam so they settle and mix better. Foam insulation can be applied using equipment to spray the foam in place, thus making it a very modern and fairly expensive form of insulation, but like in most case scenarios; you get what you pay for. Depending on the type you could have anywhere from an R-4 to R-8 per inch! Many experts say that at its purpose specific job but it can be up to as much as forty percent more effective than fiberglass put into the same fit (Ruiz 1). The reason is because of how well foam can fit into a specific spot; it can bend and twist over obstacles so that all corners are covered. This insulation is bulky and fairly ugly when not covered by something but it more than gets the job done. Polyisocyanurate and polyurethane are foams that have two different functions. They can be open or closed cell determining the amount of water vapor allowed to move through the foam. The open celled (allows for vapor) have a lower R-value and closed cell (no water vapor) has a higher R-value. Most choose to have the closed cell foam because it has a higher R-value, but one should consider that for the total R-value received the price tends to be the same. For example: 5 square inches of Polyisocyanurate foam may cost a dollar and have an R-value of R-30, meanwhile six square inches of polyurethane may have an R-value of R-30 and cost a dollar as well. As you can see the Polyisocyanurate will cover less area, but for the same cost and R-value you can have polyurethane foam which will allow vapor to move in and out of the areas.
The radiant barriers are most effective at preventing downward heat flow. The barriers are made of reflective material such as aluminum foil, plastic film and, polyethylene bubbles so that it may fit the requirements of a reflective barrier; radiant barriers must have a low admittance (0.1 or less) and high reflectance (0.9 or more).Rigid insulation is another purpose specific insulation. It is made from fibrous materials and it is produced in board like forms and molded pipe coverings. These boards may be faced with a foil to reduce heat flow. Rigid installation is something one with some installation experience may be able to do. From past experience I know that installing rigid insulation can be difficult. My father and I installed the boards on the unfinished ceiling in the basement. We had to lift the board and screw it into place. The board may look light, almost the same way cardboard does, but when you finally lift the stuff you could mistake it for lead. After a while it can be done, as long as the physical demands are met it is only a matter of time before it is installed because minimum mental effort is required so long as dimensions are correct. After installation, the next day I walked down and the boards on the ceiling had brought a homey effect to the unfinished basement and had also kept the basement slightly warmer. We had only just installed the rigid insulation on the ceiling and had it for less than 16 hours. The newly installed insulation had increased the temperature by four degrees Fahrenheit. For the hundred and fifty dollars and manual labor it had cost the insulation is more than worth it!
For buildings such as houses and apartments, heat flow is calculated in U-value and R-value. The U-value is the measure of the flow of heat through a material, given a difference in temperature on either side. Because U-value is a measure of heat flow the lower the U-value the better the insulating value, because the lower the rate of heat flow the better insulation. The R-value is different though, it is a measure of the product's resistance to heat flow. So the higher the R-value the better insulator it will make because the greater resistance to heat flow the greater the insulator it will make. R-value is measured in R-X per square inch. For example, if you have one square inch of fiber glass (the overall best insulator) and two hundred square inches of wood, the two hundred square inches of wood will be a better insulator because you would multiply woods' R-value (1.41) by two hundred. Fiberglass is considered the overall best insulator because it is effective all three methods of heat flow and it keeps both heat in and out. It is made off silica sand, limestone, soda ash, calcined alumina, borax, feldspar, nepheline syenite, magnesite, and kaolin clay. Fiberglass' R-2.2 per square inch is very high and allows a low amount of heat flow to continue. In conclusion, you must have the correct amount of insulation, as well as the correct product insulating your house. The relationship between r and u value is U=1/R and R=1/U. If you have a U-value of one-fourth then its R-value will be four because one divided by one-fourth is equal to four. This statement is true because heat flow (U-value) and resistance to heat flow (R-value) are opposites so there conversions should be opposites as well.
Today for new homes a minimum R-value is required, so if you don't meet it you will be required to follow it. Think of it this way, this is your biggest investment in life, why would you not install insulation to keep your house a more comfortable temperature, lessen the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning, and increase the overall value of your home. An interesting government program now allows a buyer to take out a larger mortgage if the house is lacking in energy efficiency, so that they may install more efficient insulation. The Insulation Handbook states that It is always more economical to install the recommended levels of insulation during initial construction rather than adding insulation later. Many insulation locations are enclosed during the construction process and it is very difficult to add insulation to these locations at a later time (28). Although it is more cost and energy efficient to install upon building and may be seen as a waste to install in an old house, it is still recommended to install the insulation as soon as possible. In different regions of the world insulation requirements or needs may vary. The department of energy asks Americans to consider the following when determining whether or not to add insulation: Heating and cooling account for 50 to 70% of the energy used in the average American home. Inadequate insulation and air leakage are leading causes of energy waste in most homes.
saves money and our nation's limited energy resources
makes your house more comfortable by helping to maintain a uniform temperature throughout the house, and
Makes walls, ceilings, and floors warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. (Energy Star Program)
In terms of cost one can use an online calculator from http://www.builditsolar.com; they use the heating degree day (The number of degrees that a day's average temperature is below 65oFahrenheit (18o Celsius), the temperature below which buildings need to be heated.) , total volume of the house, current R-value, new R-value and the cost of whatever heating fuel you use. They generate saving per year, savings for ten years, and greenhouse gas reduction. After the default calculations I made on the website some small changes can result in about two hundred dollars the first year and three thousand dollars over ten years (www.builditsolar.com). The numbers may not seem worth it, but it will increase the value of your home, it will benefit the environment, and if you do end up living in the home for a reasonable amount of time the insulation will pay for itself and save you the hassle of determining the amount of oil needed. Not only is it a hassle to get more oil and pay for it, but it produces carbon monoxide. The carbon monoxide is produced by the burning of fuels, you will burn fuels regardless of the amount of insulation in your home, but why burn more? You can compare not buying insulation to renting a home. In both situations you're just paying money for something you will have to buy in the future. When renting a home you are just paying the owner's mortgage for them and when avoiding insulating a home you are just basically "renting insulation", because you will eventually have to buy it or the money saved from having installed it will catch up and pass the money spent on extra fuel.
After understanding the basics of insulation and how it can save you money, the environment, and increase the value of your home the question should now be "why don't I have enough insulation?" Well that's a question you'll have to answer but you must understand that to avoid being ripped off you must ask yourself the questions already addressed. A certain R-value is now required, so if you are renting a house make sure your landlord is maintaining the R-value because if not then you are paying too much for heating because insulation in not your responsibility. If you must, use the law or environment as motivation, but get that necessary insulation in your home!
Works Cited
Why Insulate." http://www.simplyinsulate.com.NAIMA, n.d. Web. 21 Nov 2010.
Desjarlais, First Andr. Ornl.gov. Department of Energy, 15 Jan 2008. Wed. 21 Nov 2010.
