For additional information, read the following NAIMA items: Facts About Fiber Glass Loose Fill Insulation Achieving Expected Thermal Performance Facts About High Performance Batts in Cathedral Ceilings A Guide to Selecting Fiber Glass Insulation Products for New Home Construction & Remodeling An Insulation Comparison Questions & Answers About Home Insulation Fiber Glass and Slag Wool Insulations - Materials for a Sustainable Planet Using Recycled Material is Just The First Step (Environmental Lifecycle Brochure) Energy Efficiency Through Insulation: The Impact on Global Climate Change Recommendations for Installation in Residential and Other Light-Frame Construction (Fiber Glass Home Insulation)
	Insulation is available in a variety of forms, including: Batts and Rolls Loose-Fill Spray Applied / Foam Insulation Rigid Insulation Reflective Insulation Click here for more detailed information about each type

What Kind Of Insulation Should I Choose?

Once you have located the areas in your house requiring insulation, and have determined what R-value is needed, you will need to decide what type to buy.

Things to consider include:

• Ease of application
• Thermal performance
• Value
• Overall lifetime performance
• Safety aspects
• Environmental aspects
• "Green Building" material
• What kind of insulation do professional builders use on their own homes?

Ease of Application

Fiber glass batts and rolls are available with facing already attached.  The facing extends over the sides of the insulation to provide strengthened flanges that can be stapled to wood framing to hold the insulation in place.  Unfaced(STC) wall insulation is sometimes made wider to permit installation by pressure fitting between either wood or metal framing.  No fastening is required if the insulation material is held in place on all four sides like a typical wall cavity.   For more information on installation techniques click here.

Thermal Performance

A building that is thermally efficient reduces the amount of energy required to maintain a comfortable living environment. By resisting the flow of heat, fiber glass and mineral wool insulations reduce the amount of energy used to heat a home in winter and cool it in summer.  A reduction in energy consumption means less fossil fuel is burned to produce that energy and the result is a reduction in polluting gases emitted into the atmosphere.

Value

Adding fiber glass and mineral wool insulation is easy and can increase the value of your home.  By raising the levels of fiber glass insulation in your home, you can make your home more valuable because of its increased energy efficiency.  And, when it comes time to sell your home, it may be more valuable in the marketplace. 

Insulation is an investment that pays for itself many times over. The initial costs to install insulation are typically recouped in three to seven years depending on how much you already have and how much more you add. And, fiber glass and mineral wool insulation continues to save energy and help lower bills for the life of your home. (Saving may vary. Find out why in the seller's Fact Sheet on R-values. Higher R-values mean greater insulating power.)

Overall Lifetime Performance

Fiber glass, and rock and slag wool insulation will not settle over time.  Therefore, they maintain their full R-value over the life of the home.  When comparing products, the Environmental Protection Agency recommends using a life-cycle analysis approach to assess the overall lifetime performance of an insulation.  A life-cycle analysis is an appraisal of the environmental impacts connected with a product or service through an examination of the product’s environmental traits during the following stages: pre-manufacturing; manufacturing; distribution/packaging; use, reuse, maintenance; and waste management. From a life-cycle perspective, fiber glass and rock and slag wool insulations offer tremendous benefits to the environment and complement policies that promote environmentally preferred products.

Safety Aspects

For many years, competitive insulation manufacturers have cast doubt on the safety of fiber glass and mineral wool insulations. But, after 15 years of extensive health and safety testing, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) changed the classification of these products to Group 3 "Not classifiable as to carcinogenicity in humans.” Click here to learn about NAIMA's Health and Safety Partnership Program, a comprehensive voluntary work practice partnership with the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) begun in 1999.

What does that mean?

It means that fiber glass and mineral wool insulation can continue to be used and installed safely in homes, as they have been for more than 80 years.

Many other types of insulation have not undergone the same extensive testing as fiber glass and mineral wool. You should demand to see third party testing data. Don’t assume that a product is safe simply because it hasn’t been tested. Get the Facts! For health and safety information on fiber glass and mineral wool insulation, click here.

Environmental Aspects

When looking at choosing an insulation based on its environmental aspects, remember to look at a range of characteristics including:

• Amount of recycled material
• Amount of energy it takes to produce the products
• Renewability of raw materials
• Availability of the product locally
• Addition of chemicals to the product for fire retardancy or product protection               
• Impact of the product on the environment from disposal
• Adequacy of health and safety testing on the product

Fiber glass and slag wool insulations uses at least 20-25 percent and some products are as high as 40% percent recycled material which helps the environment by diverting materials from the solid waste stream. Fiber glass insulation manufacturers are the 2nd largest user of post-consumer recycled glass in the US. Slag wool is sometimes made from as much as 90% recycled material. On average, slag wool insulation contains 75% recycled content.

Because fiber glass insulation in highly compact, it requires fewer packages for each home insulated. For example, if insulating a typical 2,500 sq. ft. home requires 30 packages of fiber glass, it may require as many as 109 packages of cellulose insulation.

Due to the compact nature of fiber glass and slag wool insulation as well as its compressed packaging, the amount of packaging material has actually been reduced and the result is less scrap at the job site and consequently, in the waste stream.

Since fiber glass and slag wool insulation products are so highly compressed, more insulation can be shipped in each truck and the result is a reduction in the energy required for transportation.

Fiber glass and slag wool fibers are naturally non-combustible and remain so for the life of the product. Fiber glass and slag wool require no additional fire retardant chemical treatments. Certain chemicals routinely applied as a fire retardant to most cellulose and cotton insulations can cause the corrosion of pipes and wires under some conditions.

Fiber glass and mineral wool insulations save more than 400 trillion BTUs per year – a twelve-fold savings over the energy needed to produce these products. Reduced energy consumption translates into a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions such as CO2 and NOx as well as other emissions. These gases are released into the atmosphere and are directly linked to the problems of global warming and pollution.

 “Green” Building Material

A “green” building should be constructed of materials that will last the life of the structure itself.  Long-lasting construction is the essence of sustainability.  The selection of green building materials should follow the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s admonition to balance the value of recycled content as a green attribute with other attributes that contribute to resource conservation and overall sustainability.

While recycled content is the most obvious environmental benefit of a product, being truly green means using building materials that help reduce the environmental impacts associated with the extraction, transport, processing, reuse, recycling and disposal of source materials.   To be truly environmentally beneficial, a product must be conceptualized, manufactured, packaged and transported to the jobsite in ways that minimize environmental damage and excel in conserving energy. 

Fiber glass and mineral wool insulations are inherently “green”; they conserve energy and significantly decrease the generation of harmful air pollutants to the atmosphere. In assessing the environmental impact of these products over their lifecycle, fiber glass and mineral wool insulations meet many, if not all, of the requirements for green building.