Fiberglass Insulation

Fiberglass insulation has been the insulation of choice for years and has done an “adequate“ job of slowing down the flow of heat into and out of buildings.

It is also one of the least expensive methods of insulating a home.

Today, because of the high cost of energy and environmental issues, "adequate” just doesn’t cut it.

Fiberglass insulation has limitations.

Insulating with fiberglass does not address the air infiltration issue.

In fact the R-value of fiberglass decreases as air moves through the material.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory, funded by the U.S. Dept. of Energy found fiberglass batts deliver less than the labeled R-values.

According to their findings, an R-19 batt was actually R-17.4 before it was installed.

The also found perfectly installed, before the exterior sheathing to precisely fit the batts on both sides (when does this happen in the real world? Never!) was R-17.

Commonly installed tested at R-13.7.

The Colorado School of architecture and Planning built two identical test structures, one with fiberglass insulation and the other with cellulose insulation.

Their results revealed the structure with cellulose used 26.4% less energy for heating than the one that contained fiberglass insulation.

Many people are tempted to go with fiberglass over other methods because of the lower installation costs and fail to look at the lifetime cost.

If you plan on being in your home for any length of time or are concerned about environmental issues such as global warming or the dependence on the finite supply of fossil fuels, it would pay you to look at other types of home insulation.

As one of my clients recently stated to me, “cheaper always costs you more in the long run”.

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