Insulation Materials – Wide Choice

Basically, insulating materials are a compilation of materials, natural and man-made, that are now being used in insulating house and buildings in places where there are extreme swings of weather (extreme cold and extreme heat). All of these materials have been discovered (natural) and manufactured by man through existing technologies today.

All of these materials used to insulate places have their own individual characteristics that make each of them unique. Home builders and their installers use them according to the needs of the project, including the budget.

Also, not all materials for insulation can be used on all the house parts. Some are also chosen due to budgetary constraints. Aside from the listed familiar materials, there are still other uncommon materials (vermiculite, phenol foam, perlite and cementations) used in special insulation cases.

Fiberglass

Today, fiberglass tops the list of favorite materials used for insulation by home owners and home builder in the insulation business. This is made from fine glass fibers used in blankets (either batts or rolls), and as loose-fill.

In loose-fill, the molten glass is spun and blown into fibers using insulation-blowing machines. This is used in attic spaces and closed-cavity applications. They also come in as rigid boards and duct insulation.

Mineral Wool

There are two types of mineral wool, the rock wool made from natural minerals and slag wool made from the slag materials in blast furnaces. They are 75% recycled and do not need any chemicals to make them fire-resistant.

Both of these materials are usually manufactured into batts and rolls and as loose-fill insulation as well.

Cellulose

Recycled paper products (usually newsprint) end up as a very good insulation materials as cellulose. During their manufacture, the makers add borate (and sometime blend it with ammonium sulfate). Both of these processes make the finished product fire and insect resistant. 

This is usually the favorite choice used in new homes and in attic installations like the loose-fill. In addition, they are used as dense-packed filling in building cavities (these are usually the walls and the ceilings).

Plastic Fiber / cotton

The plastic fiber is made from recycled plastic (PET) bottles. The material is a fire-retardant; however, it melts when exposed to flames.

Cotton is made of 85% recycled cotton and 15% plastic fibers. It is treated with borate to repel insects. (Some makers use the trim wastes of recycled blue jeans.)

This is non-toxic and is also available in batts. A good environmental point is that it uses very minimal energy in its manufacture.

Sheep’s Wool / others

When used as insulation, this is treated with borate to work against insects, fire and molds. It can hold large quantities of water which is actually an advantage in walls. However, repeated wetting and drying can leach out the borate treatment.

Aside from the list, there are also other materials that are not common or familiar. This includes cementations and phenol foams, vermiculite and perlite.

There really are more insulation materials in development, made to fit the many types of insulation projects.  These are still in the pipeline in the makers’ R&D (research and development).

Home Insulation – Number One Concern

In temperate and other colder countries mostly in the West, home insulation is more of a necessity than an option. This is because climate changes in these countries are always in the extreme. In terms of costs, it is also better to dispense the use of your electric heaters that can cost you a fortune in energy expenses.

The initial expenses for insulation your home is decidedly substantial enough. However, this one time expense trumps the monthly expenses you have to shell out for your energy bills which do not have any expiration whatsoever.

House types

In dealing with insulation proper, certain conditions need to be considered. New houses at present are now usually built with good insulation standards. In comparison, the older houses built some years back (maybe 20 years ago) can be considered insulation defective.

The new owners are retro-fitting these structured to improve their energy efficiency levels. Meantime, the new houses are all insulated very properly and air-tight as they are. In fact, these houses do not need any heating system at all.

Materials

There are now many good materials that you can use as home insulators. These would include the mineral and glass wools, and on denser forms, they can be used as batts and slabs. (These come in blankets and rolls.) They have about 25% greater insulation index compared to the others.

Another example would be your fiberglass insulation. Fiberglass keeps your home cool in the summer while keeping it warm in winter. The insulation simply resists the flow of heat. Heat as an energy flows out of the home in winter and flows inside in summer.

With the reduction of the heat flow, the properly insulated home uses less energy for heating and cooling. All in all, this saves you energy and lowers your electricity bill.

Sound insulation

In addition, the material can also double up as your sound insulation working as a sound absorber. When installed in walls and ceilings, it can reduce the transmission of unnecessary sound from one room to another or those coming in from the outside.

Since these days are getting noisier everyday, more homeowners are also soundproofing their houses. A well-insulated home means overall comfort. (This can increase the resale value should you decide to sell it.)

Areas

Right now, there are only a few places in your home that must be insured to have a good insulation work. They would include the floors, the walls and the ceilings. With insulation, your comfort is assured while your energy bills go down.

The other places you need to insulate would be your ceiling with unheated spaces, basement walls, floors above vented crawl spaces, cathedral ceiling, floors over unheated garages and porches, knee walls and those in-between interior walls (like the bathrooms).

Other items

When we talk on the exact amount of insulation needed for your house, you need to check on where you live. Look it up from the files of the U.S. Department of Energy and the International Energy Conservation Code.

The materials for your home insulation must possess good thermal performance (R-value), fire safety, and lifetime performance.

Insulation Materials – Choosing What’s Best

When insulating your house (if you are constructing one, or if you have bought a finished one that has inadequate insulation), you need to decide the right insulation materials that goes best with the right parts. (Different house parts have different insulation needs, and your installer/contractor can tell you the best for which part.)

As of today, there are so many available materials to choose from – ranging from man-made materials to organic that occur naturally in nature. However, you need to differentiate each one from the other. For qualities, they each have their pros and cons when using them to insulate parts of your house.

The present materials range in variety that includes bulky fiber materials (fiberglass, rock and slag wool, cellulose, natural fibers) to rigid foam boards to sleep foils. Again, each of these has its own advantage and features that will suit most everyone’s needs.

The following are some of the more popular ones (in terms of costs, flexibility, versatility, etc.)

Fiberglass

Top of the line is the popular fiberglass. It delivers, is good all-around choice and basically one of the most readily available among the materials. They are usually used in blankets (batts and rolls) and in loose-fill types.

They are also available in rigid boards, and duct insulation. The materials had been processed from recycled glass and made into fibers. The loose fill are used with insulation blowing machines (for attics and closed areas). They are also used in blown-in blankets.

Cellulose / plastic fiber

Cellulose is very familiar because it is processed from recycled paper (newsprint) with a high recyclable

material content (82 to 85%). It is manufactured into a fiber to have something that packs tightly into building cavities that will inhibit air flow. It also has a maximum R-value of 3.8 per inch. (Borate is added to make it insect-proof.)

Usually, this is used as loose-fill in open attic installations and is packed in building cavities like walls and cathedral ceilings. It is also blown dry into stapled netting on building cavities. 

Plastic fiber, on the other hand, is made from recycled milk bottles and formed into batt installations like the fiberglass. It is however treated with fire retardant and does not burn easily. It melts however when exposed to flame.

Mineral Wool

Mineral wool consists of rock wool and the slag wool. The rock wool is made from natural minerals like basalt. The slag wool is made from the slag of blast furnaces, those found on top of molten metal.

It has 75% post-industrial recycled content, with no chemicals added to make it fire resistant. The common use is in blankets (batts and rolls) and in loose-fill insulation.

Cotton / sheep’s wool

Many other natural fiber insulation materials are still in use, some of which are popular in other cold countries. The cotton insulation has 85% recycled cotton and 15% plastic fibers. It is treated with borate as fire retardant. Some are from recycled trim wastes from blue jeans manufacture.

Sheep wool is treated with borate for pests, fire, and mold resistance. As home owner, you can always confer with your installer which of these insulation materials is best for your needs.

Insulation Roof – Advantages of the Materials

For houses whose roofs have not been insulated yet, the insulation roof materials present so many advantages that are helpful in many conditions all the way through climate extremes in your areas of residence. For one, they are able to prevent the radiant heat of the sun from penetrating the insides of your homes.

This fact allows the preservation of energy you are using (making it less expensive) and gives the resulting overall comfort levels inside for the occupants.

Primary tasks

The main function in insulating the roof is to suppress the unneeded heat energy coming from the outside, produced by the sun. The insulation foils in the materials effectively reduce the sun’s radiant energy in summer by up to 97%. (On the other hand, this also helps better thermal protection in cold conditions in winter time.) 

Moreover, when the materials are properly installed for the roof, the resulting factor is that it decreased the chances of moisture and thermal condensation. This condition triggers problems like molds, mildew, rot and dripping. Provided with enough ventilation under the roof surface, the moisture is allowed to escape and stops the buildup and damage it may cause. 

With the use of aluminum in retrofit applications, the insulation effectively reflects the heat energy away from the intended spaces and rooms. It also lowers the cooling cost if it is used as a radiant barrier.

Lost heat

Experts surmise that around 25% of the heat lost in an un-insulated home goes through the roof. As owner, you can easily install your insulation roof. You can see the difference in the savings you will see in your energy bills.

Installation

Among the cheapest in loft installation is the cold loft option, already considered a classic. It involves the insulation between and over the wooden joists that are immediately above the ceiling of your top floor.

If you use your loft for storage, you need to clear your project with the authorities like any other-grant-assisted work. Grants (either partial or full) do not actually cover the cost of clearing the loft.

Costs

The many options for roof insulation are not really that expensive. Energy-efficient grants are available at present for cold loft insulation projects.

Warm roofs are generally more expensive. However, they can provide a higher level of heat retention. You can also get around more easily using the loft in storing temperature sensitive items.

Types

What is referred to as a warm deck or roof is the situation where the roof deck (usually made of wood) is below the insulation. Cold deck or roof is when the insulation is below the roof deck and the joists.

A gap is needed to be left for ventilation, since this is a cold area, there is some form of condensation which can lead to rot. The inverted roof is the condition where the insulation goes above the weather membrane where it protects it from heat and cold.

These conditions can shorten its life and that of the roof deck. It can also protect it from wear and tear. (The topmost layer of the insulation roof is generally in gravel.

Insulation – Blocking Extreme Conditions

One definition for insulation is that it is a process of blocking extreme conditions that interfere with the comfort and safety of people’s lives. The most common are thermal extremes (heat or cold) from places where there are people (residences, buildings, offices).

There are materials that bar one condition (either heat or cold) from spreading. One of the many ways to do this is mostly with the help of materials we depend on to do the job. Insulators usually use the tiny packets of air inside of them. Air is one very good insulating material.

Samples of other types of insulation are those that prevent unnecessary noise (soundproofing), and those that prevent dangerous contact with power sources (electrical insulation).  Luckily, man had already discovered ways ands means and material to avoid these conditions in real life.

Other forms of insulation in use today are those that deal with extremes in heat and cold. Soundproofing (acoustic insulation) has been successfully dealt with as well. the same is true with electricity where all of the materials used are properly insulated.

Types

In insulating your homes, there are several types of insulation to choose from. In choosing what best fits your needs, you have to determine first where you want it, and all the other requisites needed. (In heat insulation, you also have to include the R-values of materials used, for instance.)

For heat, the insulation materials are many. They include foam board, or liquid foam insulation core, straw core insulation, blanket or batt and roll insulation, concrete block insulation, rigid foam, insulated concrete forms (ICFs) and loose-fill and blown-In insulation.

Blanket insulation

The most common and widely available insulation type is the blanket insulation. They are available in batts and rolls. The materials used are flexible fibers, mostly fiberglass. (Others are from mineral rock, wool, plastic fibers, and other natural fibers like cotton and sheep’s wool.)

Batts are available in correct widths for standard spacing of walls studs, trusses or rafters. Continuous rolls can be hand-cut and trimmed to fit. They have the thermal resistance you can choose from to fit your needs.

Concrete Block

These are mostly used to build home foundations and walls and there are ways to insulate them. They can be filled with insulation. Usually, the insulation is done over their surfaces to avoid heat conduction on solid materials.

Some makers incorporate polystyrene beads into concrete blocks, and some make rigid foam inserts that can increase their thermal resistance.

Rigid panels

These foam boards (rigid insulation panels) can be used to insulate almost any part of your home, from the roof down to the foundation. They are very effective in exterior wall sheathing, interior sheathing for basement walls, and special applications such as attic hatches.

They can provide good thermal resistance and can reduce heat through structural elements. Like wood and steel studs. They are made from polystyrene and polyurethane, etc.

Also included are the loose fill used in retrofits and in locations where others can’t be installed. These are the sample of insulation material in use today.

Ceiling insulation Batts – Top Choice

From the many types of insulation materials preferred by experts and seasoned contractors is the consensus topper. However, batts are made from many types of materials and that depends on which part of the house are they used for. The most sought-after though, is the ceiling insulation batts.

It is among the favorites because aside from its being flexible, batts are the natural choice because they are also very economical and effective, compared to the other materials. They usually come in pre-cut panels because they are used to insulated areas like the floors, the walls, and the ceilings.

Experts know how to customize them to be able to fit them into difficult areas (like ceilings) without gaps. Any space or gaps will result in an ineffective insulation.

Materials  

Batts material is generally made of fiberglass or rock or slag wool. The cotton varieties are mostly used for acoustic and thermal installations. They are the more popular among others for insulation because they are economical when effectively put in place by professionals.

When installing batts, it is important that the panels are customized to perfectly fit the intended areas in your homes. If there are gaps, the cooling and heating will be ineffective shortly. The insulation batts for ceilings are one of more popular choices in insulation.

The others include the blown fiberglass sand cellulose, and those that are sprayed (also fiberglass and cellulose).

Ceiling insulation

Insulating the ceiling counts as one of the more effective energy efficiency measures. The other advantage is that they are the easiest part to insulate because of accessibility. The homes with cathedral ceiling, however, have unique insulation requirement.

During the batt insulation on the ceiling, there is need to seal off the entire attic to home air leaks, especially the chases, bypasses and fur-downs. Insulation using fiberglass and rock wool does not stop the air flow.

In attics, which can be insulated with either loose-fill or batts, there is need to put the backing next to the ceiling finish for batts with attached vapor retarders. 

Blown

Sometimes, it is a good choice if the insulation comes in smaller chunks. With a hose, installers blow the insulating chunks into the attic. The two main choices for this are fiberglass and cellulose because of their qualities.

Both materials insulate about the same level and they have their R-values at about the same range. Cellulose, however, comes from recycled newspapers.

Spray

The spray foam is also among the more popular forms of insulation. There is an open cell and the closed cell. Both have their own pros and cons and with their own set of proponents.

Spray foam has the main advantage of allowing you to move – the boundary between conditioned and unconditioned spaces. Spraying foam in the roofline can bring the ducts inside. The disadvantage with spray is its cost. Generally, it costs 3 to 4 times more than the amount you pay for cellulose or fiberglass.

Ceiling insulation batts is among the good alternatives in insulating your ceiling. After all, they are the favorite among experts who knew their qualities better than anyone else.

Thermal Insulation – A Sometime Necessity

Science defines thermal insulation as the process of inhibiting the transfer of heat (thermal) energy from one element to the other. For the laymen, it is the procedure of keeping an enclosed area (buildings, houses, rooms, and other enclosed spaces) as warm (or cold) as needed.

The process of heat transfer involves common conduction, convection, and radiation. Insulation materials are then used to maintain the transfer (or the non-transfer) of heat. These days, knowing the amount of heat to control is laid out in the R-value of the insulators.

Practical nature

To the real world, insulation in terms of thermal energy (heat) is actually the management of heat and cold in situations and circumstances. This is the time when there are materials for both heat and cold are in dramatic circumstances where one will dominate the other and the whole scene.

For the modern man, managing this situation (keeping comfort by not having one or the other dictate the temperature outcome of a space) is thermal control. This is keeping in control the warmth of a space while other areas are cold.

Insulation of thermal energy is inhibiting its transfer from one area to the other. it can keep an enclosed area (a building, a room) warm enough much like the same way that you can keep the contents of a container hot or cold in a thermos bottle and not what are outside the bottle.

Insulating materials

Insulation is a form of barrier that minimizes the transfer of heat energy from one material to the other by reducing the many practices of heat transfers like conduction, convection, and radiation.

Among the insulating materials, a good insulator is a very poor heat conductor.

Materials that are less dense are better insulators. Consequently, gases insulated better than liquids, which in turn insulates better than solids. Conduction happens when materials, most especially solids, are in direct contact with each other. The energy can flow through the materials from one to the other. 

Technology

With the insulation materials, a barrier is erected between hot and cold areas and there is no transfer of heat from one material to the other. This is the actual reduction of the methods of heat transfer which includes conduction, convection, and radiation.

Insulation materials do its job by way of the nature of their characteristic material. In a word, insulators are very poor heat conductor and consequently are very good insulator.

Those materials that are less dense are better insulators. Gases, by reduction, are the better insulators than liquids, which in turn are better than solids in transferring heat energy.

Natural circumstances

Heat conduction occurs mostly in solids when materials are usually in direct contact with one another. The energy easily flows through the materials from one to the other.  Between air and solids, a solid poor heat conductor is placed in between.

When a solid layer of clothing is placed between you and the cold outside air in winter, some insulation takes place. If the cold air comes in contact with your skin, it will lower your skin’s temperature. This is thermal insulation at work.