Insulation key to staying warm, cool
The furnace or air conditioner may take the blame when a home is too hot in the summer or too cold in the winter, but faulty insulation often is the culprit.
Homes both new and old can be underinsulated or poorly insulated, allowing undesirable weather, or worse, to force its way inside.
But, homeowners with insulation problems don't have to sweat, or shiver, over their utility bills because home care services are taking advantage of cutting-edge materials and techniques that allow them to retrofit homes with effective insulation at more reasonable prices than in years past.
Gary Kleemann, co-owner of Standard Insulating in Lyndora, said homes with no insulation are quite common.
“We've been insulating uninsulated homes for years, and they still are out there,” he said.
“Insulation did not used to be common. Insulation for houses, even into the 60s, was an upgrade or a luxury, due to the low cost of energy in the country. The impetus for demand for insulation really began with the energy crisis in the 1970s.”
Pennsylvania's first energy code went into effect in 1980 under the Building Energy Conservation Act.
Kleemann, whose business does general contracting as well, said it is “distressing” to see even new builders ignoring the second law of thermodynamics, also called the law of entropy.
“Heat dissipates to cold, and you are trying to slow down that dissipation process (with insulation),” he said.
“The mistakes we see in new construction and new work are based on an ignorance or misunderstanding of how heat behaves. It is possible to insulate incorrectly. It is possible to damage a structure by insulating incorrectly.”
Kleemann explained that some structures, through poor insulation, poor engineering design or a combination of the two, retain heat and moisture in undesirable areas. The heat-burdened water vapor then can lead to mold and mildew issues.
Ron Reiner, owner of Suburban Insulation in Mars, said proper, professional insulation options include blown, or sprayed-in, fiberglass and cellulose, as well as fiberglass batts (rolls).
Fiberglass is rated by R value, a measure of thermal resistance, to judge its overall efficiency. The higher the R number, the higher the insulating value.R value can differ by type or thickness of material.For example, R-38 cellulose, the standard for new homes today, is sprayed about 10.5 inches thick, while a R-38 fiberglass batt is about 12 inches thick, Reiner said.“When we first started (37 years ago), the standard was an R-19 batt. The code today for a new home is an R-38. The Department of Energy, geographically, in this area, recommends an R-49, which may be an overkill,” Reiner said.He said do-it-yourself individuals, without access to equipment, generally use fiberglass batts for convenience. Professionals generally use blown-in fiberglass or cellulose.Whatever material is used, Reiner said the best place to start is the attic.“It's probably the easiest place to start. Standards have gone up over the years as well, to where there could be people who have retrofitted or reinsulated their attic twice, and it's still not (as efficient as possible),” he said.Reiner added that homeowners need to insulate the oft-overlooked attic access, especially in the case of pull-down stairs.“You can have the best insulation in the world, but your ventilation will pull all that heat from the house into the attic (if the access is not insulated),” he said.“That's something they can do themselves, as well.”Suburban Insulation uses blown fiberglass in attics because it is “lighter weight and has a neater appearance” than blown cellulose, Reiner said.“However, we do recommend cellulose in existing sidewalls.”The job starts with an estimator sent to the home to determine where insulation may be needed as well as the best material for the job.In unusual circumstances, such as recessed lights not designed to be insulated or exposed ductwork in the attic, Reiner said Suburban Insulation recommends the homeowner hire an energy auditor to evaluate the home's energy loss as a whole, from the furnace and windows to the insulation.“(We recommend the energy auditor), rather than a window guy telling them they need windows, or a furnace guy saying they need a new furnace,” Reiner said.“Basically, they should see what gets them the most bang for their buck.”Clair Boring of Butler also offers blown cellulose insulation, which is applied in the same manner as blown fiberglass.Cellulose is a natural fiber found in the cell walls of all trees and plants. The fibers are chemically treated to make them fire retardant and vermin and mildew resistant.“It was designed originally for older homes, to be sprayed into walls and other voids,” said Oscar “J.R.” Sasse, who installs the insulation for Clair Boring.“Once it's in there, protected by the house itself, it will last a lifetime.”The cellulose arrives from manufacturer Erie Energy in bundles. It is machine compressed, pushed through an aggravator to chop and “fluff it up,” then blown through a three-inch hose ending in a one-inch nozzle, Sasse said.He said the cellulose is sprayed into three, one-inch holes in a wall — about two feet down from the ceiling, two feet up from the floor and the midway point of the wall — to ensure the entire wall space is filled and none of the insulation compresses to leave gaps.“If it's a wooden home, (the holes) get filled with wooden plugs at the end. If it's siding, we would open up the siding and drill behind them. On the old wooden homes, you go from the outside and, unfortunately, it is exposed. But it's warm,” Sasse said.For new buildings, the cellulose is dampened with a water-based latex adhesive and applied up to three inches thick into the open wall, before being “shaved down” and having the wall erected over it, Sasse said.“We've done this for so long that we've seen every possible scenario,” he said.Kleemann said cellulose also “dominates” the retrofit insulation industry because it is a nonirritant, compared to blown fiberglass which, as its name implies, is made of glass fibers and can be a severe irritant.
