Colder weather is just around the corner and while we all love to get cozy with the first turn of the cooler weather, nothing is worse than being cold or feeling a wintery draft. Is your home ready for the colder months? Is it time to revisit the type of insulation in your home? If your attic is filled with Fiberglass insulation, you can keep your home warmer and lower your heating bill by replacing it with cellulose.
For years, fiberglass has been the go-to product for insulating homes. It is inexpensive and easy to install, although it has often been found to be installed improperly, which significantly reduces the insulation value. However, according to a report by The Construction Specifications Institute (CSI), even when properly installed, its R-Values fall below the claims.
Saving on heating and cooling costs is important, but we do not want to forsake those benefits by creating a product that is not environmentally sound to manufacture. According to a comprehensive report by the Natural Resources Defense Council comparing fiberglass and cellulose, cellulose is less polluting and more energy efficient to manufacture. It costs about 10 times more energy to produce fiberglass. In addition to those energy savings, cellulose uses about 85% recycled newspapers while fiberglass uses about 35% recycled glass. To view the complete findings, visit – Keeping Warm and Staying Healthy.
Another very interesting fact about cellulose is that it is actually highly fire resistant. This is somewhat surprising due to the fact that it’s made out of newspaper. But cellulose is treated with a borate compound that increases fire resistance of walls by 22% to 55% when compared to fiberglass. This was illustrated in a video called The Big Burn.
The benefits of cellulose far exceed the advantages of fiberglass. If you’re building a new home in today’s market, one of the most important decisions you will make is what type of insulation to specify. So do your homework. If you are already a homeowner, chances are there are areas in your home that could be improved with better insulation. While it may be nice to reach for our first sweatshirts of the fall season, it isn’t fun to be feeling cold due to an under-insulated home. So take care of those drafty areas and be cozy with cellulose insulation manufactured by Applegate and distributed by ICA.
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This article was posted on September 22, 2014, by Insulation Corporation of America (ICA) – a Women-Owned manufacturer of Geofoam and Expanded Polystyrene (EPS), which is commonly but mistakenly referred to as Styrofoam™. ICA is located in Allentown, PA and services the entire Mid-Atlantic Region from Virginia to Maine to Ohio.
