Insulation keeps warm air inside your home in winter and cool air outside during summer. This helps reduce energy consumption and cut your utility bills.
The insulation you choose and where you install it will affect how much of an impact it makes on your energy bills. For example, cellulose insulation costs significantly less than spray foam and will break even on your initial investment sooner.
Reduces Air Leakage
Insulation is a barrier to air flow which reduces the amount of energy required to heat or cool a home. It works by blocking the transfer of heat energy from the warmer outdoors to a cooler indoor space, and from inside to the colder outdoors. It also helps to keep conditioned air from leaking out, making it more efficient. When used with proper air sealing and passive design, well-insulated homes are comfortable year-round, cut cooling and heating costs significantly, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
There are a wide variety of insulation products available, with different R-values depending on the climate and type of heating/cooling system, as well as the part of the house being insulated. It’s important to consult a professional contractor to determine what the best insulation solution is for your home.
Good insulation materials trap air between their fibrous or foam-like structure. These materials can be loose-fill, such as cellulose (a recycled paper product that’s treated with boron and is blown into place), Roxul, or fiberglass, or spray foam solutions, which are typically polyurethane-based. Choosing the right type of insulation for your needs is important, but it’s also critical to properly seal any gaps and penetrations with caulk or other durable materials before installing insulation.
The type of insulation you choose is dependent on the temperature ranges in your area, and what types of penetrations are located in the walls or ceiling of your home. Some types of insulation are also rated for their fire resistance, as well as their water resistance and/or vapor diffusion retarder properties.
While it’s more economical to insulate a new home from the design stage, retrofitting older houses can still save money and cut your energy bills. For new construction, a high level of insulation is ideal, especially for the attic. If you are adding insulation to an existing home, consider insulating the walls that adjoin uninsulated spaces like garages, laundry rooms, and storerooms.
Insulation is an inexpensive, cost-effective, and easy way to save energy in your home. By reducing air leakage and stopping the movement of heat between different parts of your home, it cuts your energy costs substantially and improves comfort and indoor humidity levels.
Reduces Noise
Insulation is known for blocking heat transfer, but it also has a good impact on your energy bills by reducing noise. It may not completely eliminate loud neighbors, snoring partners or noisy children, but it does cut down on the sounds that come into your home from outside. Insulation reduces sound by slowing the vibrations that create them. It works in a similar way to water ripples that spread outward from where a disturbance is made on the surface of a pool. The noise reduction from insulation can help you relax at home.
You don’t need to purchase a special product to get this benefit, either. Most insulation has this feature built-in. It is important to note, however, that the type of insulation you select will determine how much noise reduction it provides. Cellulose, fiberglass and spray foam insulation are great choices for reducing noise. These types of insulation are installed in walls, floors and ceilings.
Many homeowners are surprised to find that the same insulation they use to shrink their energy bills can also make their homes quieter places to live. This is because of the way these products are designed. While they are usually marketed as thermal insulation, their thickness and density also makes them ideal for absorbing noise.
The other way that insulation helps to reduce noise is by creating a barrier between different spaces within a building. This can be helpful if you live in an apartment or other shared living space. Insulation can keep out the sound of music, conversations and other activities that are taking place in other areas of your home.
When you reduce your home’s energy consumption, you also decrease the amount of pollutants that are produced to produce that energy. Insulation reduces your carbon footprint by lowering the amount of fossil fuels that are burned to generate the electricity you use.
In the future, rising energy costs will likely put a squeeze on most homeowners’ budgets. Insulating and air sealing your home today can reduce the stress that these rising prices will cause by plugging air leaks, which is a major source of waste energy. It can also protect you from skyrocketing energy rates by making your home less dependent on costly heating and cooling equipment.
Reduces Moisture
Insulation helps reduce condensation and makes a home more comfortable in the winter and summer. It prevents moisture from being trapped inside a house, which can lead to mould and damp. It also keeps warm air away from external walls and ceilings to stop the formation of water droplets. This is an important benefit in areas of a house where hot or cold air can collect such as kitchens and bathrooms, and is especially beneficial to older homes with poor insulation.
It also helps make a more peaceful home by reducing noise. This can be particularly noticeable to people who live on busy roads or close to industrial areas, as well as in densely packed suburbs and cities. Insulation provides a barrier to noise from the outside world, as well as between different levels of a house. It can even help reduce noise coming from snoring or children playing.
Good quality insulation can last up to 50 years and will provide great return on investment for homeowners, as the energy bills will significantly decrease over this time. It is also environmentally friendly as it reduces carbon emissions into the atmosphere. This is why a lot of insulation is made from recycled material such as plastic bottles or paper.
Insulation is also very easy to install and comes in a range of forms. Foils, films or papers can be fitted between wood-frame studs or joists at standard spacing, or can be blown into place using special equipment. It is also available in a pre-formed bubble form, or can be poured in to fill large gaps and voids. This type of insulation is also suitable for converting existing finished rooms, irregularly shaped spaces and around obstructions.
It can be installed in the roof cavity, attic space or wall cavities. XPS (extruded polystyrene foam) insulation is particularly effective in these situations as it can be installed between the roof joists or rafters and is usually inserted using an adhesive to ensure a tight fit. It can also be sprayed onto walls or ceilings, or into ductwork to insulate ducting and stop heat loss, reducing the amount of energy your heating system uses.
Reduces Carbon Footprint
Investing in insulation is more than just an energy saving measure; it also contributes to the reduction of a building’s carbon footprint. By reducing energy consumption, it lessens the need for powering homes with fossil fuels, which is the main cause of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Insulation is a great preventative measure against climate change and helps safeguard the environment for future generations.
As the world continues to struggle with climate change, many people are looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint. Energy efficiency measures like insulating their homes are an easy way to make a difference. By preventing heat loss during the winter and heat infiltration during the summer, insulation can significantly cut down on energy usage. This decrease in energy usage translates into less demand for fossil fuels, which reduces environmental impact and reduces energy costs.
To help consumers choose the right insulation for their needs, they should consider the embodied carbon of different materials and products. Embodied carbon is the total amount of greenhouse gases that go into a building material, including its production and transportation. By choosing the lowest embodied carbon option, consumers can minimize their environmental impact. Luckily, many insulation manufacturers now offer Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) that contain detailed information on the embodied carbon of their products.
The EPDs allow consumers to compare the embodied carbon of different insulation products and brands. Some of the lowest embodied carbon insulation options include wood fiber and cellulose. Both of these types of insulation are made from agricultural residues, which can act as a carbon sink for atmospheric greenhouse gases. Additionally, they use natural gas as a blowing agent, which is much cleaner than the hydrofluorocarbons used by spray foam and rigid foam insulation.
One study found that a house that is properly insulated with fiberglass or cellulose can save up to 20% of its energy costs. This is because the insulation prevents air leakage, which can result in higher energy bills and more emissions from heating and cooling the home.
For homeowners who want to take it a step further, a number of utilities run residential energy efficiency programs that can pay for the installation of insulation in their homes. These programs can include tax credits, rebates, or utility-vetted contractors that can help with the cost of insulating a home.