Using Energy Wisely
Step TwoDo you need to add insulation to your home? According to the Harvard University School of Public Health, if your home is as little as 5 to 10 years old, it may be one of the 46 million under insulated homes in the US . When your home was built, it was most likely insulated to levels based on energy costs at that time. As energy costs increase, the economics of adding additional insulation improve. Fifteen years ago, the recommended level of insulation in the attic was R-30. Today, the Department of Energy recommends an R-49 for our region.
How Does Insulation Work for You?
Heat always moves from the warm to the cooler. In the winter, heat flows from inside the house to the outside. This heat has to be replaced by your heating 
system. In the summer, heat flows from outside to the inside and your air-conditioner has to remove this heat to cool your home. Adding insulation to the walls, ceilings and floors of your home reduces the flow of heat in both the winter and summer.
How Much Insulation?
The Department of Energy recommends the levels in the table below for our region.
Location |
R-value |
Notes |
Ceiling |
49 |
|
Cathedral Ceiling |
38 |
|
Floor |
25 |
Over unheated, un-insulated places |
Wall Sheathing |
5 |
It is important to use both the insulative sheathing and cavity insulation recommended. Insulative sheathing may be placed outside of wood sheathing product, or special braces can be used. |
Wall Cavity |
13 |
|
OVE wall cavity
|
19 |
This recommendation assumes that a 2x6 wall can be built for the same cost as a 2x4 wall, using a careful design procedure called Optimum Value Engineering (OVE). Discuss this option with your builder. |
Basement Wall |
11 |
Insulation should be placed on the interior side of a masonry wall below grade. |
Band Joist |
30 |
This is the area at the end of the floor joists that goes completely around the house. |
What Type of Insulation?
Today, we are blessed with many options when making insulation choices. There are fiberglass batts, blown insulation, both cellulose and fiberglass, spray on foams and rigid foams. Each has its own advantages, applications and costs.
Because the quality of installation greatly affects the effectiveness of insulation, we prefer the use of insulations that can minimize this impact. This is why we highly recommend blown cellulose for many applications. Because it has the ability to completely fill wall cavities with no voids, it is one of the more effective wall insulation methods. In attics, its density tends to reduce air infiltration and leaks.
Resources
The Department of Energy maintains a Web site through the Oak Ridge National Laboratory that 
offers excellent advice. You can also find recommended levels of insulation for our region.
Should you increase or add insulation to your home? That can be a tough question. The first step to finding the answer is to take an inventory of current insulation levels in your home. Next, calculate the square feet of those areas you feel have the greatest deficiency in insulation level. Once you find the cost of the material needed to increase the R-value, you can calculate what your costs are.
Once you have inventoried your home, you can also go to the Home Energy Audit tool by clicking this link. This tool will help you decide the areas with the greatest payback and energy savings. If you have questions, the staff at Egyptian Electric is always available to assist you.
The most important thing is to take action now. We all need to Use Energy Wisely. You may not believe a small savings is worth the effort, but consider this. If every home in the US changed just one light bulb to an Energy Star bulb, we would save enough energy to light 3 million homes, save $600 million in energy costs and reduce green house gases comparable to removing 800,000 cars from the road. Just think what the effect of increased insulation in every home could do!
Links to additional resources
Cellulose Insulation Manufactures Association
