Environmental Installations

CELLULOSE FIBRE -
The Environ-mental Advantage

R-Value Performance

Several factors contribute to the performance of the thermal envelope of a building, thus it is a mistake to only consider the R-value when specifying insulation.

The factors:
• Total R-value of all system components
• Air infiltration due to leakage through gaps in the system
• Air infiltration due to permeability of system materials
• Convective flow within insulated systems
• Thermal bridging across the building envelope
• Thermal mass of building components

Since cellulose insulation has a higher density than loose fill fiberglass and fiberglass batts, the air infiltration into and within the cellulose insulation is less than in its fiberglass counterpart.

The fact that cellulose insulation is sprayed into wall cavities instead of cut and placed by hand, means tighter seamless barriers are created in every area of the wall cavity, including small cracks and crevices.

When a such a barrier is created with cellulose insulation your building is 38% tighter and uses 26% less energy than a building insulated with fiberglass. These results are based upon a two-month study by the University of Colorado at Denver School of Architecture and Planning.
These factors, compared in independent studies by the University of Illinois and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, show that cellulose insulation has no decline in its stated R-value, where loose fill fiberglass loses up to 50% of its R-value when extreme cold temperatures are reached.

Rvalue

A study by Oak Ridge National Laboratories found that cellulose insulation maintains its R-value consistently through a wider range of temperatures than loose fill fiberglass.

As the temperature difference (inside a structure vs. outside a structure) gets greater, the performance of fiberglass drops, while the performance of cellulose remains constant.

For more related resources on comfort and energy savings
go to www.energystar.gov