Male: We’re building our project house to be as energy efficient as it can possibly be. So, we’re paying special attention to insulation. We started insulating the house by attaching the layer of a radium barrier material called rFoil to the bottom towards of the wood trusses that support the ground floor. This reflective foil contains a layer of polyethylene bubble sandwich between two foil sheets. That air in the bubbles adds an extra layer of insulation. The rFoil will act as a barrier to the heat that’s trying to escape the house in the winter, migrating to the colder areas under the floor. Radium barrier reflects that heat backup into the living space. Marvin Moore heads up the Association for Better Insulation. He said that all add up to savings on your monthly energy bill.
Marvin: Well, you loose a lot of heat through the floor. You will loose a 15% of your total heat loss to your house usually loss through the floor. So, if you can put a barrier that’s going to stop the radiant heat from going through and it’ll suck the hot air into the cold flooring, this will stop a lot of that. You will save money every month.
Male: To insulate the walls, we’re using a blown in cellulose insulation from green fiber called cocoon. Cocoon is composed of 85% recycled newspaper. The bolt cellulose is embedded to a hopper in special truck on the jobsite where it is broken up into small particles and prepared for installation. Cocoon cellulose contains a certain amount of starch for bonding. The starch also acts to prevent settling inside the wall cavity. The machine blows the material down a tube to the point of installation. At the installation point, a suction tube is use to collect the loose material and sent it back into the truck where it is been back into the system. The cellulose completely fills the cavity from stud to stud. Then the crew uses a shaver to remove the excess and bring the installation flush to the wall.
Marvin: When you do the wall spray method of installation, it’s almost a fluid when it goes into a wall cavity. Okay and it gets behind all the wires, then projections and obstructions in the wall where you can’t get with a piece of insulation. Okay, you just can’t get the coverage from stud to stud. It’s a consistent or a value across the whole wall.
If you don’t have a consistent coverage of your walls, a little gap here, a little gap there, the total in most houses that used piece insulation in baths, or whatever form it might be, is like leaving a window open or door open, all year round. You know, because you have these little gaps, the air is escaping from. And the purpose behind the cocoon cellulose is to form a complete seal in your home. And that’s what insulation is about.
Male: Because it covers those gaps and voids, and because of its density, cocoon is also an excellent sound control material. Here, the crews preparing to insulate an interior wall between a living area in a very noisy utility room. Netting is attached to the studs to provide backing then the cellulose is blown in to the cavity.
Now since cellulose is recycled newspaper. A lot of people have questions about fire and here we’re going to give a little demonstration with a torch. It is not a problem, for two reasons, one, because it’s really dense, and two because it’s treated with borates. Fire up the torch, spray it on the insulation, and as you can see, all is doing is making a black chart but it is not catching on fire. The borates that act as fire retardant serve another purpose. Borates are a natural fungicide so the insulation will resist the growth of fungi and mold.
The crew uses a meter to verify that the cocoon has been applied with a proper level of moisture. This will ensure that there’s a uniform application throughout the house. Depending on the humidity outside, blown in cellulose insulation requires a day or two of drying time before the wall board can be installed. We’re also insulating now our attic, with blown in cocoon cellulose from green fiber. This is a dry application that will get in our value of 30 with only 8 inches of cellulose, but as we’ve always recommend through the years, we are adding a lot more than that to our project house. Marvin Moore recommends taking additional steps to insulate the attic.
Marvin: One area, the attic, that you loose a lot of money throw is through your attic stairs hole. Now what this product, it’s called the draft cap and what it does is takes care of that problem for you so you could save money on your utility bills every month. It cost under a $100.00 and it’s easily installed. You simply lift it up, carry it up use attic stairs, there should be an attic stair hole here and you just simply drop it down. What this does, is seals off that big hole in your attic.
Male: Higher up in the attic, we’ve installed the layer of rFoil radium barrier, just under the roof decking. Our framing crew stapled the rFoil to the roof trusses leaving a slight gap between the foil and the decking to create a convective air space. This radium barrier will block up to 97% of the radiant heat that’s trying to come in to the attic as the sunlight heats up the roof and the decking. This will make the attic at least 25 degrees cooler in the hot summer months. By keeping that heat out of the attic, we reduced the strain on the air-conditioning system and save money every month on utility bills.
For more information on the best insulation for your new house, check out the Association for Better Insulation website at betterinsulation.com.
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