Spray foam Insulation... Is it worth it?
A BioTex House is a healthy home.
Blown in Blanket HP System
Properly installed, it can handle the summer sun in Austin. Hybrid explained
BioTex insulation is an Austin Texas company dedicated to providing our customers with a superior product that will improve their quality of life and provide energy efficiency while protecting the environment. By controlling the ventilation in your home, you can keep harmful mold, bacteria and allergens at bay without resorting to harmful chemicals.
A properly ventilated house is a healthy home. Spray Foam Insulation will minimized bacteria, pollen, and other allergens from seeping into your house as well as forming a preventative barrier against mold. You obviously want your home to be free of mold and allergens. When insulating foam is sprayed into wall cavities, it expands to fill all nooks and crannies. You and your family will breath cleaner air resulting in a healthier life.
Spray Foam Insulated homes are more livable.
Vacuum your ceiling
The difference in a home insulated with spray foam insulation and one without is astounding.
- You hear the quiet.
- it does not send particles of glass or anything else flying through the air. You can store your Christmas tree in your attic and not be afraid to retrieve it a year later. Your attic is sealed and free of dust.
Foam installation is affordable
Say "YES" to Foam
Payback: With your 1st Utility Bill
Depending on the size of your house, and the exposure to the western sun, you can save hundreds of dollars a month in utility bills vs. an added mortgage cost of $20 or so per month. Payback begins with your first utility bill. Calculate your own mortgage costs using the financial tool on this Century 21 real estate website.Pays for itself immediately.
From Day 1, you are putting money in your pocket. The savings from your 1st utility bill is many times the amount of your mortgage payment and more than enough to pay for Spray
Foam Insulation. Remember the summer of 2011.
Additionally, the government incentives that will put money in your pocket, such as "Energy Efficiency Tax credit for New Homes" and "Austin Energy Green Building" rebates and "Energy Star" tax deductions that help pay for your foam insulation. Combine this with the savings on your utilities and you will discover going green with your home insulation pays for itself many times over.
Leakage is not ventilation
Say "NO to Fiberglass batts
Ventilation is fresh air that enters a house in a controlled manner to exhaust excess moisture and reduce odors and stuffiness. Air leakage is outside air that enters a house uncontrollably through cracks and openings. In Central Texas, during cold, hot, or windy weather, too much air may enter the house and, during calm weather, too little. Also, a leaky house allows moldy, dusty crawlspace or attic air that is often unhealthy. People pushing fiberglass say a house needs to breath. Wrong. A breathing house is nothing more than a house with leakage. You need controlled ventilation. This is especially important in Austin or anywhere in Central Texas which seems to be the allergy capital of the world.
How does Foam Insulation work its magic?
Spray foam insulation is applied as a liquid through two tubes. These two liquids interact upon exiting the installer nozzle. The spray is then applied into wall, ceiling, and floor cavities as a liquid. It immediately explodes into 100 times its size, filling all those holes, nooks and crannies as well as expanding around framing and wall outlets. Because open cell foam does not shrink, sag, or settle, it is the perfect insulation and air barrier; insulating and sealing in one step. This may not be headline news for the Austin American Statesman, but it is a great news for texas homeowner trying to keep their homes cool and energy bills under control.
What about the R-values?
R-Values are Misleading
shut or cracked has the same R-value. Fiberglass Batts problem is leakage.
Spray foam insulation has a high R-value. It is much higher than fiberglass. However, R-values are greatly over
rated. Leaks and Steady-state are the important measures.
Steady-state is the amount of time it takes the temperature of the insulating material inside the wall to equal the outside temperature, and thereby quit providing any insulating barrier. It is worth noting, as the temperature gets nearer to steady-state, the insulating properties lessen.
An exposed air conditioned house in Texas with fiberglass insulation will reach steady-state in about 3 hours whereas the same house with foam insulation will not come close to getting there (it would take 24 hours of intense, direct sunlight. We get a lot of sunshine in Central Texas, but I have yet to see 24 hours of direct, continuous, sunlight. In other words, you are never going to reach steady state with spray foam insulation.