TreeHugger Picks: Green Insulation
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 12. 8.06
TreeHugger has been covering a bevy of ways to reduce energy use lately, from the Power2Save and PowerCost home energy monitors to five ways to cut back on phantom loads and vampire power, but sometimes prevention is better than treatment. Here are some quick picks for keeping more energy from leaking from your home with green insulation.
1) Recycled paper insulation is made from 100% waste recycled newsprint and has been successfully installed in more than 1 million homes in the UK alone!
2) HempFlax insulation uses mostly hemp fiber, with a little added polyester fibre for reinforcing. Soda acts as the fire retardant, and, as the hemp is naturally resistant to moths and beetles, extra chemical application is avoided.
3) Concrete Blond's customized insulation panels create a false wall, behind which an insulating material can be placed; it's a great product for older homes with solid walls which would be difficult to insulate otherwise.
4) Recycled denim insulation is 100% recyclable, VOC-free, and formaldehyde-free.
5) Lloyd just added three new entrants in one entry to the archives, with recycled materials, LEED credits and positive air-quality features abounding.
Insulating without air sealing is like wearing a fleece in a strong wind with no wind breaker. Get a few cans of expanding foam and seal the building envelope. Around window jambs and other interior places, use caulk. See the EPA's guide to DIY air sealing - this is the RIGHT way to do it!
energystar.gov [pdf]
i just found out the other day that my mother's 100+ yr old house is insulated with ground up corn cob. which i found rather novel and liked alot. im sure its probably quite common in older homes, but im not in the construction field, so it was new to me.
In the UK, there's also a product called Thermafleece: sheep's wool insulation for the home. The wool comes from sheep with coarse fleeces considered unsuitable for clothing.
Here's a story about the company that makes Thermafleece on the BBC website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5317358.stm
I am trying to find some one to help me write grants for a green farm that is sustainable with wind, solar power with green construction for the house and barn. I am considering a straw bale house and straw board for construction. I want to make excess power to force back to the fossil companies, there fore reducing their sales of fossil fuel if they were getting pushed back by clean energy, I want to use only bio deisel for my equipment and to supply biodesel to others. I need help to wrote out the farm plan and get the funding to build the statinable engery farm. There by showing it is not only good for us but for the future.
I can be reached at yah_shamar@yahoo.com
Anyone with ideas or suggestions. Or talents to offer, Please help me. I am not rich I do not have a gilzillion dollars, so I need to get federal loans and grants to do this.
Thanks in advance.
Victoria
Another really great insulation is reflective insulation.It was invented by NASA to protect space craft from radiant heat[invisible heat waves that can penetrate through solid objects.]Take a piece of aluminum foil and put it in between your hand and a incandescant light bub [if you have not changed them all to LED or CFL bulbs!]Then remove the foil and feel the heat! Low-E coatings on windows do the same thing.This is a good product for both new construction and retrofits.The kind I like to use is called Low-E.
Chris Hurst
Hey, you missed out on another product - woodfibre boards from Pavatex.
They are CO2 negative, rigid board insulation, sarking, waterproofing and render carrier all in one; they can be used on new buildings, old solid walled buildings, roofs, floors.
We love it...
http://www.sustainablebuildingsupplies.co.uk/pavatex-woodfibre.html
Icynene foam insulation is simply the best Insulation you can buy. Although a little pricey. You can lower your tonnage on your HVAC unit witch will save you money. Stops the air infultration and your utillity bill will be cut in half over fiberglass insulation. foam insulation is a Green product made with soy beans. I have had people complain about the price prior to getting foam installed in their home. After a year most will call and brag of their low heating and cooling costs.
I agree fully that foam based insulation is superior. I am in an industry that thrives on fiberglass...the HVAC industry. Most people are unaware how much fiberglass in present in the HVAC ductwork that supplies air to almost all commercial air conditioning systems and many residential systems. It is a double edge sword...you either use bare sheet metal and wrap it...only to have air leakage as much as 20% (see EPA report on duct leakage)...or utilize a fiberglass ductboard that can increase exposure to airborne fiberglass particles and is suspect as a breeding ground for mold.
There are foam based HVAC duct products on the market and are widely used in Europe and the Middle East. Only one of them is UL approved in the United States...called Koolduct. Koolduct is a phenolic foam based board that is enclosed by aluminum sheets on both the interior and the exterior. The biggest issue, IAQ benefits aside, is the simple fact that this ductwork is almost twice the R-value for the same thickness of fiberglass and is extremely air tight. I am perplexed how homes and buildings are insulated to an R-40 or better...yet the HVAC ductwork with higher temperature difference are insulated to an R-4.2! It is time that we start using foam based products.