Cellulose insulation is made from plant matter and is used to insulate buildings. It was historically used and is now considered a greener option. It can protect against fire and has different types for various uses. It can save costs but finding experienced installers can be difficult and it may attract termites.
Cellulose insulation is a material used to insulate between interior and exterior walls and other building structures. This form of insulation is made up of a variety of things that were at least originally plant matter. Numerous people throughout history have used cellulose forms of insulation. It was also employed in the famous Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson.
The attitude towards cellulose insulation has undergone a gradual change. Concern about the safety of some of the products used in the 1970s led to increased regulation and boosted sales of its main competitor at the time, fiberglass insulation. After fiberglass reigned supreme in the insulation market for several decades, cellulose insulation studies started to prove some interesting facts about it.
For example, researchers have found that this form of insulation could help protect homes from serious fire damage because it’s so compact that there’s little room for the oxygen, which fires require to keep burning. Another interesting aspect of this insulation is that with the exception of the chemical treatments applied to it, it is considered a much “greener” building material.
It mainly uses recycled materials such as paper and naturally produced fabrics. In fact, when the California Academy of Sciences rebuilt its San Francisco facility in the late 2000s, it chose to use recycled denim as insulation. A factor in choosing this environmentally friendly method was the low embodied energy (amount of energy required to produce a product) in denim insulation, compared to the embodied energy of fiberglass.
There are several types of cellulose insulation that can be used in buildings. These include bulk fill, low dust, wet spray and stabilized. Loose fill can be blown into areas of the space that require insulation. The reduced dust is treated with a few additional products, which can be helpful if people are allergic to dust from items such as newspaper. Wet spray cellulose insulation has the addition of water and may be the most effective form of insulation, and stabilized cellulose bears some resemblance to it.
There can be some significant long-term cost savings in using cellulose insulation. It tends to keep the heat in better, or to keep it out depending on the outside temperature. The only thing that remains difficult is finding people who are experienced in applying it. It can take some work to find people with extensive experience installing different forms of this insulation. Another potential downside is that the ingredients in this insulation can attract termites. However, borate treatment, which is usually standard, tends to deter termites.
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