Spray Foam Insulation vs. Fiberglass
For many decades, the material of choice to insulate homes has been fiberglass. Blown fiberglass is used for the attic whereas fiberglass batts are used for wall cavities, ceilings, and pretty much everything else. Today, it is still a very popular insulation material, and is still used in new construction — it is inexpensive and most builders and insulation contractors are used to it.
Yet, there are several insulation materials available today that far outperform fiberglass insulation in many levels, and in the #61 episode of On the Job Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver, will show us how spray foam insulation outperforms fiberglass batts when it comes to wall cavity insulation in new construction.
Larry begins by reminding us that modern houses aren’t built as rectangles with gabled roofs anymore. Most new homes have architectural features such as cantilevers, multi level areas, enclosures and fixtures that create irregular wall cavities and many challenges in terms of insulation.
The house showcased in this video is one example of this type of modern construction.
Fiberglass has an R-Value of 3 per inch while spray foam has a R- Value of 7 per inch. R-Value is a measure of resistance to heat flow, and a lower R-Value per inch means that you need a thicker layer of fiberglass than you would of spray foam to insulate the same area and achieve the same ideal R-Value.
The problem is that the fiberglass R-Value is rated only when the material is fully fluffed, not when it is compressed and touching all the surfaces in the cavity, without edge gaps. A small 4% edge gap will cause a 30% decrease in the R-Value of fiberglass insulation.
Add to that the fact that fiberglass has no air sealing capabilities, and air flows right through the material and you will begin to understand how it can be easily outperformed by other insulation materials, especially spray foam insulation.
Larry walks us through the many architectural and framing features of the building that would create several opportunities for insulation failure if fiberglass were the chosen material — and he shows us just how easily closed spray foam can be applied to the exact same problem areas. Spray foam insulation expands and effectively fills even the smallest spaces and gaps, leaving no holes in the insulation blanket and air seals the walls as well!
At Dr. Energy Saver, we are always looking for ways to make homes more comfortable and reduce the cost of homeownership by improving energy performance. If you would like to make your home more comfortable, visit our website to locate a dealer in your area.
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The Stack Effect
If you’ve been watching videos or reading articles about home energy efficiency, you most likely heard or saw the term ‘stack effect’ used several times. Building scientists are always very concerned with the stack effect and how it impacts energy consumption and comfort.
The “stack effect” is a physics phenomenon that occurs in every single building, every house — including yours.
It causes the warm air inside any closed structure to rise and escape through the higher portions of the building. As a result, a negative pressure area is created at the lower levels of the building, causing a lot of unconditioned air from the outside to be sucked in through areas like crawl spaces and basements.
If you are running a heating or air conditioning system in your home, all the air that you are paying for is not staying in the living space. Instead, it is constantly leaking out from the top of your house. Unconditioned air is then being sucked in to make up for the air that is leaking out, and your HVAC system is working harder than ever to keep up with all the loss and intake.
While the concept is not hard to grasp, it is hard to imagine exactly how much it impacts your comfort and energy bills until you can actually see it in action.
And this is exactly what Larry Janesky will demonstrate in this episode of the On the Job video series. Using a diagnostic device called a digital micromanometer, Larry will demonstrate the enormous impact the stack effect has in terms of energy efficiency by measuring the differences in pressure between different areas of the house, and the outside.
After that demonstration, Larry uses a smoke pen to demonstrate how the air leaks in and out of the building.
Building science is continuously evolving, and at Dr. Energy Saver all our technicians are trained to keep up with the latest advances in diagnostic and problem solving technologies, to always provide you with the best and most cost effective energy saving services.
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Insulating Cold Cantilevered Floors
In episode #62 of the On the Job video series, Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver, walks us through a recently completed project to once again speak about an important subject previously discussed in other On the Job episodes: Cantilevered floors and how they can become a huge source of energy loss and discomfort when improperly insulated.
Cantilevers are architectural features common in raised ranch style homes, when the second floor is made slightly bigger than the floor beneath.
That small portion of the floor that is exposed to the outside air, when not properly air sealed and insulated will allow heat to be lost to the outside and cause air to leak through making the floors very cold and the room uncomfortable to be in. Unfortunately, most cantilevers are poorly insulated, with fiberglass insulation and lack air sealing.
In this project, Larry and his team chose to insulate the cantilever with spray foam due to the high R-value per inch and air sealing properties. Other equally efficient methods can be used that perform much better than fiberglass batts, including foam board insulation and dense packed cellulose insulation.
Dr. Energy Saver technicians will always evaluate each case individually and offer the best, most cost effective and least disruptive alternative to solve the problem.
Are you ready to have the comfortable and energy efficient home you deserve? Give us a call or visit our website to locate a dealer in your area.
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Soundproofing with Spray Foam
Welcome to episode 60 of the On The Job video series! In this video Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver, shows us a project in which open cell spray foam was used, not as an insulation, but as a soundproofing solution.
The building shown in this episode is a garage with a finished room above. Both areas were heated with a radiant heating system, which was showcased on episode 59, and insulated with spray foam. The floor above the garage was lined with a radiant barrier to reflect heat from the radiant heating lines.
After the room upstairs was finished with hardwood floors, the homeowners were worried about the noise caused by people walking on the floor, which could become annoying when in the garage.
To prevent noise transfer between the two floors, Larry and his team at Dr. Energy Saver applied open cell spray foam to the ceiling above the garage. With a density of only ½ lb per cubic foot, open cell foam is very soft and has excellent sound proofing capabilities.
The test the end of the video, compares sound between a treated portion of the floor and one that hadn’t received the application and there is a dramatic difference between the two sections.
At Dr. Energy Saver, we are always researching and working on solutions to make your home more comfortable, enjoyable and affordable to own. Visit our website to locate a dealer near you.
To learn more about ways to save energy and live more comfortably, watch our other On the Job episodes and subscribe to our channel for the latest videos and updates. .
Sealing Doors and Windows To Stop Drafts
In the 58th episode of On the Job, Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver helps us understand the importance of sealing the “shim space” around door and windows in order to eliminate drafts that make our homes uncomfortable and our heating and cooling bills higher.
When houses are built, the spaces for the windows and doors aren’t cut to fit snuggly around the window or door frame, there is usually a ¼ of an inch clearance left around the frame, for shimming and adjustments. That gap is what we call the shim space, which is often overlooked in terms of insulation or simply filled with chunks of the same material used to insulate the wall cavities – which is often fiberglass.
Fiberglass doesn’t stop air flow, and when applied to the shim gap, it merely acts as an air filter.
Many homeowners try to improve comfort and energy efficiency by installing or replacing their windows with energy efficient models, but when so much air is leaking through the shim space due to lack of proper air sealing, the investment in new windows doesn’t bring the expected results.
In this video, Larry installs one part expanding foam using a thin nozzle attachment to the gun. The thin nozzle attachment is ideal for applying the material and can reach all the small spaces around the window frame and around the door frame.
The foam will expand and close all the gaps.
A Dr. Energy Saver technician can also perform this energy saving process in existing homes and during window replacement projects.
To learn about more ways to save energy and make your home more comfortable, watch other videos of the On the Job Series and subscribe to our YouTube Channel for the latest updates.
Insulating Basement Walls with FOAMAX
Welcome to the 80th episode of Dr. Energy Saver’s On the Job Video Series!
This episode is all about the importance of basement wall insulation in home comfort and energy savings.
Basements are a subject that Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver, knows very well. After all, he’s been in the basement waterproofing business for over 20 years as the owner and founder of Basement Systems — the world’s leading basement waterproofing network.
In this video he explains why basements are so damp and cold, and how much impact an uninsulated basement can have on the comfort of your home and your energy bills.
The concrete walls in the basement are very dense and cold year-round. The ground is cold and during the winter, the outside air is equally cold. According to the laws of thermodynamics, heat tends to travel from more to less.
That means that a significant portion of heat produced by your boiler or furnace will tend to escape to the outside through the basement walls — a problem that Larry demonstrates using thermal imaging.
Watch the results in the thermal imaging camera as the basement walls are insulated with FOAMAX.
FOAMAX is a special type of polyisocyanurate rigid foam insulation board that is especially suited for basement walls. It has a high R-Value per inch, and — unlike other types of rigid foam — it can be left exposed in a basement.
FOAMAX is also waterproof and acts as a vapor barrier, directing any wall seepage to the perimeter drain system installed down below.
Visit our website for more information about FOAMAX and other basement wall insulation options, and don’t forget to subscribe to our channel for the latest videos!
Insulating Walls with Dense Packed Cellulose
Dr. Energy Saver is On The Job again…this time to help a local homeowner make his home a more comfortable and energy efficient building by improving wall insulation.
This house, like many others in the U.S., had its exterior walls insulated with fiberglass batts when it was originally constructed. In this case, Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver, demonstrates and explains why the fiberglass insulation wasn’t doing a good job of insulating the wall cavity.
Using a borescope, a diagnostic device consisting of a camera attached to a long flexible tube with a lens at the end, Larry shows us the big gap between the facing of the 2-inch thick fiberglass batt and the drywall, in this 3.5-inch thick exterior wall.
Fiberglass insulation, even when properly installed, doesn’t stop air flow and, in this case, the gap within the wall cavity left plenty of room for air to flow in and out of the living space. With the fiberglass insulation heat is consistently lost through the exterior walls during the winter, and gained during the summer, making this house very difficult and expensive to heat and cool.
For this home, dense packing cellulose insulation on top of the existing fiberglass insulation was the chosen method. Cellulose is an environmentally friendly insulating material made with shredded paper and also a powerful fire retardant – giving cellulose insulation one of the highest fire safety ratings among all insulation materials. The paper is treated with borate — a harmless, antiseptic used in eye washes and similar household applications — to inhibit mold growth and deter pests.
To install the insulation and reduce the amount of dust, powerful, high pressure blowers are used to pack the cellulose in wall cavities. To minimize disruption for the homeowner, the wall cavities are usually accessed from the outside, by drilling holes under the siding. This particular home was scheduled to get brand new siding so the holes were drilled straight through the existing cedar siding.
A surprisingly large amount of cellulose is normally used to dense pack walls, even in these walls where they were already insulated with fiberglass. From the inside of the home and during installation, Larry explains how dense packing cellulose will help stop both air flow and conductive heat transfers through the exterior walls.
With exterior walls properly insulated and air sealed, this home is now easier to heat and cool, year round – making the energy bills much more affordable. Among the many homeowners we help every day, all across the US, this is one more satisfied customer! We would love to help you too.
Visit our website or give us a call for a comprehensive home energy evaluation!
Sealing Ducts to Prevent Mold in the Attic
Welcome to On the Job Episode 74! In this episode we will discuss yet another side effect of running leaky ducts through an unconditioned, vented attic: mold.
The second most common trigger of indoor allergy symptoms in the U.S. is mold. It will grow everywhere in your home that possesses the three main conditions in which it thrives: warmth, high humidity and presence of organic matter for mold to feed on.
A vented attic, with leaky ducts just happens to provide the perfect environment for mold growth, as Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver shows us in this video.
He takes to a home in the Northeast where hot air leaking out of the ducts and condensing all over the cold attic surfaces led to a bad case of mold on the wooden roof deck. If the leak persists, the mold will keep growing and the roof deck will start to decay, eventually affecting the structural integrity of the roof.
To make matters worse, the air that began leaking into the attic is air that the homeowner paid to heat. It is now being wasted through ducts. By sealing and insulating the ducts and air sealing the attic, he completely isolated the living area from this unconditioned space. This method used by Dr. Energy Saver, will not only prevent future mold growth in the attic, but it will also make the rooms below the attic more comfortable and the entire house more energy efficient.
Sealing and Insulating the Rim Joist
The rim joist, for those who are not familiar with building terms, is the edge of the wood floor framing system. It sits on top of the foundation walls, secured to the sill plate.
In a typical home, the rim joist area is a huge source of energy loss. It often lacks proper air sealing, so outside air is consistently leaking in through the wood joints, corner, gaps and openings drilled in the rim joist for electric wires, plumbing and ducts.
When the rim joists are insulated, it is often with pieces of fiberglass batt, which is not the best choice for this type of application. Fiberglass doesn’t stop air flow, so the air still leaks in. Also, fiberglass loses R-value when it is damp. Basements tend to be naturally-damp environments due to ground water evaporating into the space and condensation issues.
The results of poor rim joist air sealing and insulation can be felt throughout the house in the form of cold floors, drafty rooms and high energy bills.
The best materials for rim joist insulation are those impervious to water. When the rim joists are easily accessible, pieces of rigid foam board can be cut to snuggly fit on top of the rim joist, between the floor joists and then air sealed with spray foam.
In this particular job, however, Dr. Energy Saver chose another great option to insulate rim joists on top of stone basement walls: two-part polyurethane spray foam.
Two-part polyurethane spray foam not only provides superior R-value (R-7 per inch), but is also expands to fill gaps and holes in the rim joist, stopping air leakages in one simple step.
In most homes, even new constructions, there is always an area that can use some improvement in terms of energy efficiency. It can be the rim joist, or your attic that need better insulation. It can be doors and windows that are leaky or air ducts that need to be cleaned, sealed, balanced or insulated. There is often an opportunity to save money and energy. Your local Dr. Energy Saver dealer can help you discover ways to improve your home’s energy efficiency, while making your home more comfortable and affordable to own.
For more tips on how to save energy at home, watch our ‘On The Job’ video series and subscribe to our YouTube channel for the latest updates.
How Sealing Attic Ducts Reduces Total Home Air Leakage
Welcome to On the Job Episode #73! In this episode, we will discuss the impact of leaky air ducts in the attic on the total rate or air leakage in a home.
Many of our On the Job videos explore the energy consumption and comfort problems caused by ducts that run on unconditioned attics.
We also have videos that explain the way air moves inside a building, the pressure differences between the bottom, top, and middle levels of the structure, and how air leakages in the attic have more of an impact on energy consumption than air leakages in the living, or conditioned spaces.
The air that leaks through air ducts in the attic is air that you pay to heat and cool throughout the year. This is air that is not getting to the rooms that it needs to heat and cool.
The test in the video will show that even when the air handler is not running, air from the conditioned space is still escaping through the ducts.
Exactly how much air escapes?
With the help of a blower door test, Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver, will test a home with unsealed air ducts in the attic, and then run the same test again after the ducts are sealed.
With no other air sealing work performed, the results show that in this particular home, the leaky ducts alone counted for 8% of the total air leakage.
How much air is leaking through ducts in your home? How much more comfortable would be the rooms in your home with this simple and affordable improvement? How much would you save in energy bills? Contact a Dr. Energy Saver dealer in your area today to find out!
Sealing and Insulating a Stone Foundation Wall with Spray Foam
The typical basement is fairly easy to heat during the winter. A large portion of it is buried in the ground, and the ground temperature is quite constant year-round.
Why then are most basements so cold and uncomfortable during the winter time? Why are they such a huge source of energy loss?
There are three major reasons. The first is the humidity. Ground moisture seeps through the walls and evaporates into the basement, increasing the relative humidity levels. Moist air is very hard to cool and heat.
The other two major sources of heat loss can be found in the portion of the basement that protrudes from the ground. This area includes the exposed basement walls and the rim joists and when under-insulated and improperly air sealed, the space loses heat due to air leakage and conductive heat transfer.
The air inside a house has a tendency to travel upward and can leak of the home through the roof and upper levels of the building. This air movement generates negative pressure on the lower levels of the building, causing a lot of outside air to be sucked in through any holes and gaps in the rim joist and the exposed portion of the basement wall.
That exposed part of the basement wall is also made out of very conductive material, and without a layer of insulation, heat is constantly being transferred and lost to the outside.
Due to the moisture present in the basement walls, the best insulation materials are those that are both inorganic and impervious to water. Although fiberglass is often used for this application, this doesn’t mean it’s the best choice. For block and poured concrete walls, rigid foam board is usually the recommended material, because the walls are regular enough to have boards attached to them.
With stone walls, however, things are much different. In this episode of ‘On The Job,’ Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver, shows us the process of insulating stone wall basements using two-part polyurethane spray foam.
Closed-cell spray foam is an excellent choice for this type of application because of its high insulation R-value (R-7 per inch!), as well as its ability to expand to fill every gap and cavity in the basement wall, air sealing in one step. Closed-cell spray foam also acts as a vapor barrier, keeping ground moisture from evaporating into the basement.
Two-part spray foam application in such a large project requires massive power, and heavy equipment, tons of material, and experienced technicians in full protective gear. Home occupants and their pets need to leave the premises for a few hours, due to the fumes produced during the application.
When spray foam in used to insulate basement walls, it also needs to receive a special coating that acts as a thermal barrier. With only a couple of inches of two-part polyurethane spray foam, these basement walls have now an R-14 insulation value and the homeowner can enjoy added comfort and energy savings.
If you are paying too much for your heating and cooling bills, or have rooms in your house that are too cold or too hot, Dr. Energy Saver can help. Contact us to schedule an estimate with a dealer in your area.
For more videos and tips to save money and energy at home, watch our ‘On The Job’ video series and subscribe to our YouTube channel for the latest updates.
Preventing Ice Damming
In Episode 72 of the “On the Job” video series, Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver, speaks about a problem that is common during cold winters: ice damming on the roof. While ice dams don’t happen very often, when icicles do appear on the edge of the roof, the consequences can be disastrous.
Ice dams occur after snow storms when heated roof shingles cause the snow to melt and the outside temperatures are cold enough to freeze dripping water at the edge of the roof, forming an ice barrier.
When that happens, the water from the melting snow gets trapped behind the icy wall and usually finds its way into the house, through the gaps between the shingles. The water not only can damage the roof itself, but it can also leak into the attic and into wall cavities, causing extensive damage to the home.
What causes ice damming and what are the ways to prevent it? Larry explains that, while not all ice damming can be prevented, in many instances, the ice dams are a tell-tale sign of a poorly insulated and air sealed home – especially in the attic area. It means that heated air is escaping from your living space into the attic and heating the roof.
Most attics in U.S. homes are unconditioned, meaning, the attic is not part of the heated, conditioned living space. The air that you pay to heat should not be escaping to the attic. By properly air sealing all the gaps that allow air to leak out, and by bringing attic insulation R-Value up to 60, as recommended by the U.S. Department of Energy for homes in the cold regions of the U.S, you will keep the heat where it belongs: inside your living space. The temperatures in the attic will be similar to the outside temperatures and the shingles are less likely to be heated and cause snow melt.
While making your home more comfortable and energy efficient, in many cases, this will also help alleviate ice damming problems and protect your property from damages caused by ice dams.
Please note that ice damming can occur due to other circumstances such as sun heat on the shingles. Monitoring your roof after snow storms, removing some of the snow from the roof, and other preventive measures might still be necessary even if your attic is properly air sealed and insulated.
